Benz's Biology Blog

Holiday Update---E-version (iHolidayNote)

2011-12-10T11:18:00.001-05:00

Rich and Betsy’s 2011 Holiday Update

Rain--This seems to be the word of the year. Of course you probably already know that, but since it is raining as I write it seemed appropriate. Travel and biology in the back yard were big items for this past year. Betsy loves retirement and has read almost every book ever published this past year. Well, not really, but she is enjoying reading and keeping her list of “books read” up to date. She also loves keeping up with “the Elementary School” escapades by volunteering to help with kindergarten and first grade one or two days each week. She enjoys seeing her friends, working with the little ones and the fact that she can arrive when she wants and leave when she sees fit is what retirement is all about. Rich is continuing to “drag himself” to the Metropark Environmental Learning Center 3 days a week to help connect the parks with the schools in Lake County. He has to watch the turkeys wander past the window, the deer stop by for a graze or two, the bluebirds nest and the Sharp-shined hawk soar in for a snack (sometimes of bluebird, or wren, but that IS biology.)

Travel is always a big part of our year. Spring found us visiting Kate and Madeline on our way to a short week in Williamsburg. We love getting to be Grandma and Grandpa and a visit to historic Williamsburg is always one of our favorite things to do. Once again we stayed in one of the historic houses, visited with Thomas Jefferson, went to an L.L.Bean outlet and this time enjoyed watching a nesting Bald Eagle near historic Jamestown. Rich ran a week long teacher professional development about Lake Erie and then hit the road to help run the First Annual Biology Institute At Exeter. Betsy joined him at the end of the week for the lobster feast and to travel to two incredible weeks in the Artist’s Cottage perched overlooking Penobscot Bay on Maine’s rocky coast. This is the second year in “The Cottage” and two weeks of beautiful weather made the visit almost beyond wonderful. Two weeks of photographing the waves and rocks. Two weeks of reading on the deck and watching the lobster boats every morning. Two weeks of talking to the laughing gulls and watching Monhegan Island drift in and out of view as the fog came and went.

We got home and repacked for another Belizean adventure. Ten days is a tropical rainforest during the rainy/hurricane season. Of course we had a great time!! Really we did. The rain in Northeast Ohio and the August temperatures made the jungles of Belize feel just like home. With Mayan ruins, jungle critters, beautiful birds and great friends, the ten days spent in Belize were the kind of adventure you usually only read about. Living it is much better.

Our Fall Leaf Peeping was beautiful again this year. We spent five days in Norman Rockwell’s Vermont home in West Arlington, Vermont. The weather was great. Cool enough in the evenings for a fire in the room and warm enough for a light fleece during the day. The colors have been better in past years, but after the terrible floods from Hurricane Irene, just seeing how the Vermont people have worked together to rebuild made the short visit very enthralling.

Fall brings Leaf Patrol Duty

Though we don’t see Megan and her husband Peter often enough and Kate and Madeline are seven hours away in Bethlehem, Pa, we talk to them and sometimes get to visit via Skype. Madeline is almost five now and is a young lady instead of a little baby. But she is still “OUR” little girl and is growing way too fast. We are planning to see Kate and Madeline in a few weeks and will be spending a week with Megan and Peter in Florida in January.

Fitzroy is still chasing leaves as they fly past the back door and the pond is still resounding with falling water (though the Blue Heron visited in early Fall and feasted on four of my seven beautiful fish--I guess that’s biology too!)

The rain keeps coming and Fall is slipping into Winter. We have had another great year. Fun and Family and Friends have filled our lives. We hope your year has been as satisfying. Here’s to a wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy, Safe 2012.

Rich and Betsy (and Fitzroy) December 2011

How Can I Keep From Seeing Part Too --

2011-10-28T13:59:00.002-04:00

The color inhalation continued. Actually, south of where I live, farther away from Lake Erie, the trees are more brown than yellow and orange. There are still some blazingly bright trees. Some sluggish Maples and lazy Oaks, but the majority of trees have lost more than half their leaves. Many have bare branches on top and fluttering colors on the bottom branches. I think the winds of last week helped to clear the upper reaches of these trees. But still, colors are all around us.

The swath of leaf color from green to pale green to yellow and red and orange make up the Fall vista. The drops of dew glisten.

Driving down the road I start to think of the science here. The carotenoid and xanthophyll pigments are what we see. The chlorophylls are "dying", fading away and the hidden colors show through. I think of leaf chromatography and Rf values. Mobile phases and stationary phases. Just the Biology teacher sneaking out. Fall means color, and cool temperatures, and Halloween, and football games and pumpkins and paper chromotography lessons and photosynthesis and "Why do the leaves change color Mr. Benz?" "Is it the temperature or the day length?" "What should we use to dissolve the colors out of the leaves to run our chromatogram?" "Will water work?" "How about alcohol?" "If water dissolved the colors what would the trees look like after the first rain?"

Oh sorry, just a "teacher flashback". Happens all the time. No problem. In fact, it usually brings a smile to my face. If I happen to be around other folks when this happens I find myself teaching again. (Whether they like it or not!)

But I must continue to look at the colors, and sometimes to peer throughout the colors to see the rest of the natural world. Winter is coming and everyone is getting ready for this change. My bird food doesn't seem to stay in the feeder quite as long. The Fall ladybugs are getting everywhere. On the house, on the doors, IN the house, everywhere. Winter is coming and we must be prepared. But wait, one last look. I am remind. I just can't keep from seeing!

One last mole!

How Can I Keep From Seeing ?!?

2011-10-28T11:09:00.004-04:00

Tell me--Just How Can I Keep From Seeing? I know, the real title is How Can I Keep From Singing? But the point is --it is Fall (or Autumn,) in N.E. Ohio. The sun is finally shining (an unusual event this year--2011 is the wettest year ever, Ever, EVER in Ohio. Actually that is really hard to tell, but at least since we started keeping records.) We had an early heavy frost, now dew is on the ground and on the leaves. N.E. Ohio is alive with color. Beauty is all around. The crisp air is punctuated with the falling leaves that have had their days of color and are now starting their journeys back to the nutrients that make up the forest floor.

Everywhere I go my eyes are treated with an incredible array of colors. Just like in the Spring when the trees and shrubs and grasses are just starting to come alive with every green on the pallet, every color of yellow and gold and red and rust and even brown whisk by as I travel. Actually this is a pretty dangerous time for me to be driving around. The trees draw my eyes from where they should be. Texting while driving is stupid! Using your mobile phone while driving is silly. I guess looking at the passing trees is somewhere in there too, but it is almost irresistible! It is much better to stop, get out, and actually look at the wonders of nature's colorfest. Or--just look outside my back window. Gaze out my back door. Stand on my deck and feast on the sunlight and the colors. With a cup of hot coffee or tea, a camera around one neck and a pair of binoculars around the other I can't imagine a prettier scene. The birds seem more active, the light brighter, and the colors more magnificent than in the summer. At least that is what my mind perceives. Maybe it is because we have had so few sunny days this year. Maybe it is because I am looking a little harder. None the less, it is bringing a smile to my face. But how could it not? Well a quick thought of the coming winter passed through my thoughts. The Northeast got their first measurable snow last night and today. But thoughts of snow and ice are only quick thoughts and the colors of Fall come back to the forefront once again. The camera isolates the beauty. It separates the incredible leaves and trees from the other incredible leaves and trees. Sometimes this is good. You can see details, notice specific colors. But the awe is often in the panorama of color and light and dark that the eyes see and the camera misses.

Yet, here I sit writing about it. I think I need to go out again. Be in the colors. Smell the colors. Feel the colors. That's it -- you feel the colors of Fall! Well, I need to go out feeling for awhile. I'll be back. I'll bring some colors back too! I ask--How can I keep from seeing? From smelling? From feeling?

I can't !!

The Heron

2011-09-19T15:25:00.000-04:00

Many years ago I ended a blog post with "what a strange species we are." I was reminded once again.

Let me start with my pond. It is not a large pond, just a small garden pond with a waterfall, lots of decorative rocks, some lily pads, of course too much algae and seven beautiful fish. Well, make that three beautiful fish!!! Actually, now-- three bigger, older fish and three new small additions. I'm sure you can goes the scenario. But this is a very difficult situation for a biologist, naturalist, nature lover and garden pond aficionado.

Journal sketch of a pond I built long ago.

I am not a new-comer to garden ponds. I created a small pond behind my garage back in 1994. It was small, colorful and very peaceful. I kept a few goldfish in it during the nice weather and brought them into my classroom in the winter. When I moved I left it behind. I'm sure it is a just a memory now, but for a few years it was my personal reflection spot. I wanted to replicate the experience at my current house. Six or seven years ago I had a little pond build next to our deck in a former herb garden. Once again it was relatively small very peaceful and colorful. A new place to enjoy nature and my own "entangled bank." You might remember Darwin's 'entangled bank'.
"It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the external conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

Sitting on my Leopold Bench, naturalist hat on waiting for a complex nature thought to come passing by.

A place to watch and to contemplate the "big questions." I even added a Leopold bench this past year. I wasn't taking any chances that a 'nature thought' might come and go and not be captured!!

"Big Guy"

So why are we a strange species? I keep saying my pond, not the pond. I created it so it is mine. I bought the fish. They are mine. Before the pond it was an overgrown herb garden. Now it is MY pond. But more than that. I grew attached to the fish. I was a bit reluctant to name them (except that I called the biggest one "Big Guy." ) That is him in the picture above. A handsome, rather large, very colorful goldfish. I suppose I grew attached because he was the last remaining fish from the original fish I stocked in the pond when it was new. The others disappeared about three years ago, the last time I had a Great Blue Heron visit the pond. That time it ate 6 fish and "Big Guy" (thought he was much smaller then,) was the only one that escaped. He was in the filter box and stayed hidden.

One of the last photos of some of MY fish.

He was the only one that survived a power outage a year latter when the power went out and the water heated up in mid-summer while we were away. He was a survivor!! He grew and actually became pretty used to coming to the surface to get food. (I think that might have been the reason for his demise two weeks ago.) I had a total of seven fish. Five goldfish of various sizes and two rather large koi. That was then. That was the population three weeks ago. Now only three of the original seven remain. ( I added three more small goldfish yesterday so the current population is up to five.) How did this predator get the four big fish. MY big fish? I had taken evasive action after the last encounter three years ago. I deepened the pond. I built a rock cave house so the fish could hide. I put nylon string around the pond and installed a motion-activated water sprayer called a "scarecrow." This seemed to do the trick. Well it did the trick for three years. Then three weeks ago we saw another Great Blue Heron in the yard. It was stalking the pond. MY pond! He (or she since it was a bit on the small size,) saw the fish. They were huge. They were colorful. They were on the surface feeding. They were MINE! I chased him away, but he roosted on the roof of my neighbor's house. Waiting. that is what BG Herons do most of the time. they wait. Eventually he flew East. two days later he was back. By my garden. Is the time right??? No, I made the noise of the water spraying 'scarecrow' and he flew away. What was I to do. I put up more string. What I did not do was put netting over the pond. Big Mistake! I never did see him again, but two weeks after the first sighting I didn't see my fish either. I mean MY fish. None. Nada. Zero. Here we go again. How can I get so depressed at nature. My house was not blown down by a tornado. I did not get flooded out lie the folks in Vermont. No huge storm surges like in New Jersey. Just no fish. It was because they were MY fish. Taken from MY pond. Three days later I caught a glimpse of first one fish then another. They had been hiding. Three were eventually spotted. Not seven, three. Four were missing. How did the Heron do it? I protected them String. Nylon line. Deeper pond. Water sprayer. But there it was. Four missing, handsome, colorful, healthy fish. There were still there. One koi, and two of the smaller goldfish. Scared, jittery, and often hidden, but still swimming in MY pond. Boy was I depressed! It is hard to reconcile with Mother Nature. You know "Red In Tooth and Claw" and everything. "It is all part of Nature." "The Cycle Of Life!" But they were MY fish!! Taken from MY pond........

Yesterday I bought three new fish. One small koi. Two small, cheap, feeder goldfish. They have brought the population in the pond to 5 fish and lots of frogs. Not MY frogs, just frogs. Not MY fish, just fish.

I did not name the new fish!

Here's To You 'Big Guy'

Maybe if I started calling him MY Blue Heron.............

A strange species INDEED !!!

The Game of Survival In Houston/Bush Airport

2011-09-02T15:03:00.001-04:00

George Bush Intercontinental Airport or IAH or as I have been calling it--The dreaded Houston Island of torture, humiliation, stress, terror and frustration. The last time I ventured through the International portal of Bush airport the news was all about Swine flu. Here is a news statement made in 2009 (the last time US Immigration and I met,)

"U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement. Its officers are monitoring the health of incoming travelers and taking "all appropriate precautions," including referring a person with symptoms to a quarantine station or a local health official for evaluation."

At that time I was sure that every Swine Flu (H1N1) case in neighboring Mexico was flying into the United States via Bush International and had arrived minutes before my flight from Belize City. These coughing and sneezing people were standing in a mile long immigration line right in front of me!!! Of course at this time I was concerned about my health and the health of my loved one--Betsy. I was surprised at the length of the line, but it was the health of the other immigration "cattle" I was concerned about. In 2009 I had 3 or 4 hours between flights and the long line was simply an inconvenience. Well there was really very little to be concerned about. Few incidents of Swine Flu occurred as a result of people bringing in the virus on international flights. Flights from Mexico City were reduced and those that remained were monitored very closely. I did not have any of these statistics in my head while I stood in the winding line that year, but all was fine. I got through the line, I felt like a cow being led to the "end of days." I made it to my boarding gate and even had to wait a bit before we boarded the last leg of a very long day. A little stress. Some exhaustion, but relatively unscathed.

Not this year!!!!

The day started on Caye Caulker at the Caulker "airport" as I mentioned in the first part of this two-part blog entry. Our carrier, Maya Island Air is one of two airlines that serve this island. It is the smaller of the two with --

a modern fleet consisting of eight (8) Cessna Caravan C208's, one (1) Cessna 182, three (3) Britten Norman Twin-engine Islanders, one (1) Australian G7 Airvan and now three (3) ATR 72's.

Since we we were on a Caye, the flight was scheduled on one of the 12 passenger Cessna Caravans. (Since we had 12 people traveling in our group, this was a good choice of plane!)

The 'terminal' at Cay Caulker Airport

Small and cozy.

Now I really did expect a small plane. I knew the airport was small too. It is kind of exciting anyway. The plane landed early and was prepped, meaning--the door was opened for the passengers and the luggage. The airport ground crew, luggage handler, emergency team member, ticket taker, etc. (all the same person,) wheeled out the luggage cart up to the open luggage compartment. He took each piece of our luggage off the cart and placed it into the cargo hold of the plane while we squeezed 12 exhausted travelers into the 12 available seats (this includes the co-pilot seat which is considered the twelfth seat.) Now as air travel goes, this is as unmysterious as it gets. The plane comes in from another island, it lands, it taxies, we approach the boarding ladder, our luggage is on a cart right next to us, the doors open (passenger and luggage compartment,) people start to board, the luggage is loaded by the one employee at the airport, we get in our seats, the luggage door is closed, the passenger door is closed, we try to figure out how to use the combination seat belt/shoulder harness, lock, click, the propeller starts to turn we taxi, we take off. Simple. Nothing hidden. At no time were we separated from our luggage like in the big airports. (Remember all of this until the next part of the story.)

In the meantime the flight is exciting. Short, but exciting. The layout of the Cayes is evident. The colors of the Caribbean tell the story of the land, the shore, the runoff, the reefs, the depth of water, and the type of bottom--sand, coral, grass, rock, etc.

I know that this is the exciting,yet easy portion of our long trip home. We are exhausted from the start, but this adds a little more thrill to the whole adventure. The plane made its way across the short expanse of ocean and banked over the mangrove lined shoreline of the Belize mainland. I desperately look for the last of the 'jungle' animals. No jaguars, no tapirs, not even a parrot or two, but I have fun looking at the rivers and the few large tropical trees that extend above the shorter mangroves. The small plane makes the Belize City International Airport seem like O'hare or Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International. The noise stops and we sort of tumble out of our 12 seater onto the tarmac. Into the terminal and now we await the delivery of our luggage. We arrived early. The flight actually took off 1/2 hour early because the plane was there, we were there and there was no real reason to wait for the official take-off time. We had about a two hour wait after we got the luggage.

Remember I suggested that you remember the paragraph above--no mystery in the whole process. At no time did we lose sight of our bags. Well, it's not really that simple. The bags started to arrive. The conveyor belt had only our bags on it. I grabbed my bag, I helped Betsy with hers and we both started to the main terminal to see about checking in for our flight to Houston. The check-in desk for Continental/United was not even open. We would have to sit and wait. Hold-on----there are only 6 of us in the terminal. What happened to the others? We started with 12. Twelve landed. Twelve got off the plane. The luggage started coming we got ours and made our way to the main terminal. How did six people get lost? Did something happen to them? We waited. I figured there had been stops at restrooms, etc. After about 20 minutes I was worried, so I volunteered to make my way back to the arrival terminal. Down the path, around the building into the adjoining building and around the corner. There they were. Two bags had been lost !!! Lost! Lost between the Caye Caulker 'airport' and the Belize City Airport. Remember, small airport, bags on a cart, standing next to the cart, people board, bags board. Twelve people, about 12 bags ( a few more because some carrry-ons couldn't be carried onto a small plane. ) How did they lose two bags? This was not a disaster--there was another flight in an hour or so. But how did they misplace two bags? No long baggage conveyors. No customs. No bag inspection. No one handled them between loading and unloading. The cart had 14 bags. We kind of expected 14 bags to appear on the mainland. --(Hypothesis--The bags really did make the flight, but the baggage handler(s) at the Belize airport did not completely empty the cargo hold after it landed.) But there we were--another mishap in a series of other mishaps. Not disasters, just mishaps. No major injuries, no earthquakes, no hurricanes (one week after we got back home, a hurricane/tropical depression did cut across Belize dumping major amounts of rain--but not on us.) The list of mishaps included missed flights for some, almost missing flights for others, getting stuck on the road into Duplooys, a few tumbles, a chair collapsing, a little digestion turmoil for a few on the Caye, a sink falling, a rudder coming off a boat,--mishaps. Laughable in retrospect. These are all parts of the story I guess. But losing two bags on a short 15 minute flight!?! All part of the story.
The bags arrived, everyone reassembled and the journey continued. The Belize City part was easy. It always seems to be easy. The last of the Belize money is spent, a few minutes to check e-mail in case someone really needed to get in touch with me before I boarded the flights home. The waiting seemed a bit stressful because I know that a one hour lay-over in Houston was not going to be long enough. What if the flight was delayed? What about immigration and customs. How far would we have to go from our landing gate to our departing gate? Bush International Airport is a big place. But wait is all we could do. Good news, the plane arrived in Belize from Houston on time. A short turn-around time was announced and an on-time takeoff. It looked like everyone was there. We took off close to on-time--not early, but on-time.

Goodbye Belize !

An easy flight. We even land early. We have about 70 minutes until the Cleveland flight is scheduled to leave. The survival adventure begins.

Deplane. Run into the terminal. Where's the baggage pickup? Where is immigration? Run through the terminal to immigration. Where is everyone else? Do we wait for everyone or do we try to get to the gate to hold up the departure until the others get there? Wally and Norma do not have checked bags. They can get there fast. We enter the cattle runs. Where is Temple Grandin when you need her. Temple Grandin is the celebrated animal welfare specialist that was the subject of an award winning television special starring Claire Danes. "Grandin's interest in animal welfare began with innovative designs for sweeping curved corrals, intended to reduce stress in animals being led to slaughter." Wikipedia entry about Temple Grandin. We needed her right now. No curved corrals. No tall walls so we could not see our future humiliation or slaughter. In fact, I think the zigzag design of the waiting line corral is engineered to create stress. That and the thought of missing connecting flights and being faced with the task of begging for a reassignment. Will we have enough time to go through immigration and get our bags and then get to customs, get through customs, recheck our bags, go up to the airport security, go through airport security, get to the Cleveland flight departure gate all in 65 minutes or so? NO WAY!!!

Wait, the line over there is shorter. Let's go! Under ropes (straps really.) There, now we are 10 people or so ahead of where we were. This might make a difference and anyway, it makes me feal like I'm solving the problem because I am so good at figuring these things out. Wait, this is the line for foreign nationals coming into the US, not for US citizens returning. Yikes. Back underneath the ropes (straps,) and back to our original line. We are 25 or so people behind where we were just a few minutes ago. Good problem solver!! The line IS a bit shorter than two years ago. We made our flight in 2009. (Of course we had a three hour layover and we did not have the stress of missing anything, just the stress of getting something (see H1N1 above.) Maybe if I tell the agents that are standing around trying to reduce stress in the waiting citizens (I'm not sure if that is their job description, but it was not working here.) "My flight is preparing to leave!" " I will be left behind !" "Is there an emergency line for special people like me?" No special line. No faster way. I am assured that I will make my flight. The cattle inched ahead. "Temple, where are you?"

We get to the front. NO problems. Next--Customs.

On to the baggage claim. I notice a sign that tells where our bags will be as I am running (well, walking fast.) Conveyor 10 I think. I tell Betsy to go to conveyor 10 I will be there getting our bags. Where are the others. Wally and Norma are well ahead of us. That is good. Wally is 80, Norma 81, they don't need to be running through the terminal. Of course the bags are there waiting. They did not have to stand in a long, winding line like cattle. They did not try a shorter line to no avail like I did. They were just on a pleasant merry-go-round ride with a whole lot of their new found travel companions. I spot one, got it. Where is Betsy's. NO worries, here it comes. Where is Betsy? I look around. I am wheeling two cases, carrying my backpack with camera equipment. I spot her. She was o the other side of conveyor 10. We grab the bags and run. Over to customs. Another line. Not as long. No zigzags. There are five lines. No wait, only 4. They bunch up. 42 minutes to go until take off. 35, we are at the Customs desk. Easy. Through customs with 35 minutes to spare. A few of the others are in the back of the customs line, but not everyone. Okay, 35 minutes and we recheck our bags. Now only our carry-ons to worry about. The clock is ticking, but I think we will be able to get to the gate in 35 minutes--even if it is in a different terminal.

SECURITY!!!

We need to go up a level to get to the next corridor that will lead to the main terminal and then to Terminal D where our gate is. The escalator is just ahead. What's this? Another line? Agents are stopping people from getting on the escalator. Security is backed-up there is no where to go. 30 minutes or so from now our plane will be taking off and I will have to figure out how to get to Cleveland on another probably booked-up flight. An extra day on the road is not a life or death tragedy, but my cat is expecting us and I need to cut the lawn, and besides, this should not be happening to us anyway!!! I am pretty sure we will not make it now. Finally we get on the escalator and enter the line for airline security. You guessed it. NoTemple Grandin design here either. Zig-zag all the way. Everyone is stressed. An emergency line now? You know, for people that are likely to miss their flight. NO WAY! I see Wally and Norma. What are they still doing here? Their zig zags past us and they tell me that it has taken them 30 minutes to get this far........ STRESS; STRESS;STRESS.

20 minutes.

18 minutes. We are getting closer. They open another line. We scoot ahead. I think Wally is going to make it. Not us. The line we are in closes in front of us. WHAT!! At least the cattle don't know what lies ahead like we do!! We squeeze into an adjoining line and get through. 10 minutes to spare. I look at the Departures. We cannot walk to the next terminal and get there before the plane doors are closed. So close. This is almost worst. If I had not changed lines way back at immigration?? Maybe.

I see an airport terminal electric passenger transporter. I ask if they can take us to the gate. Maybe??? He says yes. A mother and two kids going to L.A. get on too. Wait. This is my ride!! The driver says he just dropped two folks off for the Cleveland flight--Wally and Norma. They made it!!! He thinks we can get there in time too. The folks going to L.A. are doomed. Their plane left 5 minutes ago. They seem to think it is not too late, so they stay on. The cart races through the Houston corridors and terminals. Get out of our way!! He reassures us. Cleveland is doable . We get to the gate. I see Wally and Norma. They are boarding. We can board too! But where are the others?????

We race onto the plane. We stow our carry-ons. Settle in and buckle-up. Then I take a breath. I'm not sure if I have been breathing this whole time, but at last I can take a slow, exhausted breath--WE MADE IT !!

Of the 12 passengers that we started with, two, Judy and Morgan, live in North Carolina and had three hours to make their flight. No problem. Wally and Norma, Betsy and I made the flight. Six did not. They needed to reschedule their flight to Cleveland and got home very late the same evening. Not a tragedy. Just another mishap.

We got home 15 minutes early and the cat was waiting!

Caye Caulker and the Game of Survival In Houston/Bush Airport

2011-08-26T09:45:00.002-04:00

The key to the Caye is their motto--"Go Slow!" This welcome logo is the the Caye's logo, motto, mission, goal, legacy! Of course it is pretty easy to go slow when the air temperature is 94 degrees F. and the humidity is pretty much the same. If you walk along the ocean-side path/road the constant breeze makes the climate tolerable, even pleasant at times. As the road continues behind a row of one and two story buildings the heat/humidity/blaring sun, comes bearing down upon even the slowest wanderer. A hat is a necessity for me these days. I'm not one of the Caye Caulker tanned yet. Of course, a hat makes it hotter, but you can only get so wet from sweat, eventually you are soaked and the occasional breeze starts to cool. Why don't the others with bare feet and bathing suits sweat? All of this is just a temporary distraction. More importantly the tropical scenery occupies my mind. I'm talking about the real scenery, not the scenery walking around with skimpy coverings. The palms and flowers remind you that you are not walking along the Lake Erie beach front now. The Messo-American Barrier Reef, popularly know as the Great Belize Reef (second largest in the world,) lies 1 mile off-shore. You can see the waves breaking over the corals from the island. When the tides are low you can see the line of breakers very distinctly. Even at high tide the tops of the breaking waves can be seen. Beyond the breakers the deep blue color of the deep ocean stretches on past the horizon. The color of the water between the Caye and the reef is "Caribbean Blue." You know, the blue that swimming pools are painted. The blue you think about when you think about tropical paradises.

The wildlife is always a highlight. Frigatebirds--Magnificent Frigatebirds ( Fregata magnificens) to be exact, soar overhead. the females with their white chest and the males all dark (the red throat pouch or gular sac is seen in the males only during mating season.)

Isn't it amazing how the human powers of observation have been honed--that is, when something out of the ordinary comes into view it is all you can do to look away. As we neared the island on the water taxi the soaring Frigatebirds were the center of our attention. These strange, exotic, huge creatures were awesome (and that is the literal meaning of awesome--AWEsome!) Almost prehistoric in form and incredibly large, the Magnificent Frigatebird demands attention. That is until you have seen that they are the Turkey Vulture of the Cayes. Now Turkey Vultures (or as we call them in Ohio-- Buzzards,) are also magnificent, but when they are always soaring in the sky above your house you tend to "ignore" them. I'm sure that this is how our minds stay receptive to change, to new 'dangers' entering our neighborhoods. But magnificent birds are still magnificent. The same was true when I first saw a mob of kangaroos in Australia's bush, or a lounge of Marine Iguanas on Espanola Island in the Galapagos Archipelago. The number of photos in both cases is evidence of this phenomena. First sighting--rolls and cards of photos (back when I first saw the iguanas I was using film to photograph.) Finally, after awhile, the unusual was the only thing I shot--the iguana skeleton or the Joie sticking it head out of a pouch. The same was true here. All of the travelers with cameras had them pointed at the sky. Snap, click, "darn"--(They are hard to focus on as they soar above.) Snap, snap, click! Eventually--"oh look at the sleepy cat on the railing. It's just what we do. We have to to survive in the ever changing always dangerous environment of places like Caye Caulker. None the less, the Frigatebirds soar, the palms sway and the lure of the ocean screams out its invite. We are on a Caye, one mile from the second largest barrier reef in the world, what is a biologist to do?? Sail, Sail, relax and Sail.

A sunset sail is always a great way to get a feel for Caulker's motto. The sunset is earlier (by the clock,) than it is right now in Ohio. In Ohio the sunset was about 8:35 or so on August 9th. Here on the Caye it came about 6:20. Of course this difference is smaller in the winter months when our sun sets in Ohio are at about 4:50 and the 'go slow' folks on Caye Caulker watch the Sun hit the horizon at about 5:30 or so.

I'm feeding a magnificent Magnificent Frigatebird

But there is more that needs to be done with the Belize Reef. Visit it. There are really three ways to visit this reef. You can dive it (SCUBA,) Snorkel it, or just look at it from a small boat. All are good. Some easier than others. I opted for the snorkel route. It is shallow by nature and SCUBA might be overkill and anyways, I don't SCUBA much. Talk about observing the world around you!! That is the whole purpose of snorkeling. Corals, and urchins and rays and sharks. Green Morey Eels, schools of colorful reef fish, anemones, conchs and did I mention the Frigatebirds soaring above?? What a world, what a world!!

Conch I found, photo by Judy Jones

The corals were showing signs of recovery from past hurricane damage. The colors of the older corals looked bland. Bleached a bit, but not as bad as corals I have seen in the Bahamas. The new growth on the corals show great color. It is good to see that at least some of our ocean environments are showing signs of improvement. The "dive" was divided into three distinct environments. The first spot was a bit deeper and had more larger fish swimming in and around the corals. The second was shallow and had a sandy/weedy bottom and featured a whole gaggle of rays and nurse sharks the came for the chum that the tour guides threw to them. Finally, the best dive was on a 'coral garden'. This is where I saw the most coral growth and the best coral colors. Sun, sea, fish, corals, rays and sharks. A great place to concentrate on observations.

But the tropics are only a travel site for me. Eventually thoughts start to drift back to the task of traveling home. Ten days of being on guard for new scenes, new animals, beautiful plants, and interesting cultures takes it toll. The thought of becoming human cattle--marched through three flights, immigration, customs and security in two different countries and three different airports seems harder than building a Mayan temple to me. Especially when one of those airports is Houston's Bush International!! The airport on the island adheres to the Caulker motto--"Go Slow." We arrived about 45 minutes or an hour before our scheduled flight and the airline administrator, ground crew, luggage handler, ticket taker and fire department chief (all the same person,) wondered why we were so early. He expected us to be no later than 15 minutes prior to the scheduled flight time. Well the 15 seat plane (including the pilot,) arrived from Ambergris Caye early, so he squeezed us into the small prop plane and we took off about 1/2 hour early. Why not!

The rest of the trip deserves its own blog entry so stay tuned for the Survival Game called Bush International!!

Finally, Caye Caulker.....

2011-08-16T16:33:00.002-04:00

The jungle road goes on and on and on, but we finally departed the western district of Belize and made our way to the coast. Belize is a small country, with an area of 22,963 sq km (8,866 sq. miles) slightly larger than Massachusetts, but because the roads are so bad and our van was not so roomy, it felt like it took us days to cross. Actually, I was in the front passenger seat, so it was not too bad, with the exception of the water condensate from the air conditioner continually falling on my feet.

Roadside Resident

Our Home in the Jungle

The most amazing observation in addition to the passing villages and the Monday morning traffic (yes, even in Belize,) was the change in the ecosystems as you go east. Belize borders the Caribbean Sea along the eastern shore of Central America just below the Yucatan Peninsula. The western border is shared with Guatemala along the Maya Mountains. We had just stayed for 7 days in the Maya Mountains along the Macal River. We ventured south through a mountain plateau called the Pine Ridge Reserve when we visited the Mayan site of Caracol. Now we were bumping along the Western Highway toward Belize City. Belize City is not the capitol of Belize, that is Belmopan, but it is the largest city and the economic hub of the country. About half way to Belize City the landscape flattens out and you start to see more sandy soil. This coastal plain is dominated by red mangrove swamp. Some of the swamp is filled in so temporary buildings can be erected. In Belize, it seems all buildings are temporary. Either the jungle eats them up like the Maya structures, or the hurricanes blows them down. I think Belize is a perfect study in entropy. Entropy, also known as the basis for the Second Law of Thermodynamics, basically refers to the energy needed to maintain the order of a system. If energy is not continually put into a system, that system will become disordered. My classroom used to have a sign--"Laboratory Of Entropy Studies" above the doorway. The class was often in disarray. Good teaching and good learning (I think,) was going on, but I worked hard to put the energies into the teaching process instead of keeping order in the classroom. I got some heat for that over the years, but overall, good stuff happened there.

Anyway, Belize could have the same sign at the borders I think. "Laboratory of Entropy Studies." Often there is not enough energy available to maintain the order of the country. Jungle grows around it, rainstorms eat at its roads, hurricanes topple its buildings. People try, but it almost seems like they are losing the battle. I still think it is a great country and is filled with wonderful people, but it needs more energy. Maybe the tourists can help bring some energy to Belize by bringing dollars. Money helps fight this entropy thing. I think the constant gentle push against the ensuing jungle, the eroding rains, and the occasional hurricane is worth it. Anyway, as I watched the mangrove swamp pass us by (well, we were actually passim by, but you know, things like travel are relative,) it looked like many of the buildings were bing eaten by the swamp itself. As we got closer to Belize City the buildings looked to be winning. They were bigger, more permanent, more entropy resistant! Finally we would our small Toyota van through even smaller, narrow streets right to the water taxi terminal.

Our journey on mainland Belize was ending and the journey to the outer Cayes and the Meso-American Barrier Reef was beginning.

From Wikipedia--
"The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS, also simply known as the Mesoamerican reef and often abbreviated MAR) stretches over 1000 km from Isla Contoy at the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula down to theBay Islands of Honduras. The reef system includes various protected areas and parks including the Belize Barrier Reef, Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park, Hol Chan Marine Reserve, Sian Ka'an biosphere reserve, and the Cayos Cochinos Marine Park. This reef structure is the largest coral reef in the Western Hemisphere and the second largest barrier reef in the world."

We stepped into a transitional world for our 45 minute wait. It was air conditioned, not just cooled by spinning ceiling fans. There were television sets attached to the walls (showing the tumultuous fall of the American stock market....) And there was Cheetos and Snickers. Are we in America??? No.. Not quite. The box of toilet paper packs that one must pick up as one enters the bathroom (not afterward as some of our group found out,) proved. But it was a step. I don't know if it was a step in the right direction, but it was a step.

Onto the water taxi to Caye Caulker. A 45 minute speedboat trip to the outer barrier reef. Actually the reef is about 1 mile off the coast of Caulker, but it is considered "on the reef." That brings up another interesting thing about Belize. It was still on the Standard System of measurement until December 8. 2010. The Standard system is what we use the US. The only other countries that use this system are Liberia, Myanmar (Burma) and in a limited sense Canada because of U.S. commerce. Though the SI system is legal, most signs are still in the traditional English Standard units--miles, feet, etc.

We are finally on the Caye, (pronounced 'key'. ) A Caye is an island. Basically a sandbar. It is 5 miles long, but 1/2 half of it is north of the 'split' that formed and cut the island in half during Hurricane Hattie in 1961. The same hurricane devastated Belize City. (There is that entropy again.) It is only 1 mile wide at its widest. A 200 minute walk basically takes you from one end to the other. But the motto of the island tells about the culture on the island--"Go Slow". I did not see anyone in three days disobeying this 'law'. It is a very relaxing place to "run away to." In fact that is what many of the residents look like they did. Some with shoes, many without. Some with shirts, many without. The tourists wear hats and typically are red. Those that ran away are tanned brown and most are smiling.

The last three days on Caye Caulker were slow, relaxing and yet still adventuresome. The story of sharks and rays and moray eels will continue soon.

Caye Caulker--The Place to Run Away To (continued...)

2011-08-15T16:09:00.005-04:00

Morpho laying egg

The Blue Morpho seems to be one of the 'trophy butterflies' for those needing to collect the beauty of nature. I guess I collect nature in my own way--in memories and in pictures mostly.

The next adventure found us on the road to Barton Creek Cave. As in most of our travels, getting there is half the fun!! The road to Barton Creek is as bad as the rest of the Belizean back roads--dusty (except when muddy,) rocky (even when muddy,) slippery (when dry or muddy,) and at all times bumpy!! There are a few interesting sites along the way to the Cave that holds Mayan artifacts and even a skull or two. One notable scene that we passed through is a Belize Amish community.

Amish Shed in Belize

There are both Mennonite and Amish in Belize, and both sects can be seen on the roads around the Cayo District. The Amish are a bit more primitive than the Amish that live down the road form me. The buggies and carts use old truck tires instead of the fine wooden wheels we see in Ohio. (A wooden wheel would last about 3 minutes on the roads of Belize, so the car and truck tires are necessary here.) We passed the Amish farms on a Sunday morning, so there were almost no folks about.

Amish Road Grader

The Amish do try to maintain their roads as this horse drawn road grader shows.

The lives eked out of the rainforest here do not seem to be so very different between the Amish and the 'Yankees'. The struggle is always against the forest and the jungle. Everyone struggles and works to survive, to raise a family and to keep their farms going and growing. Our guide Phillip said that he never sees the Amish smiling. They work hard and are serious all the time. I wonder what they say about the travelers in the vans that pass?

We did not honk, but 10 'ACERS' might be nice to have!?!

The road goes over and through the rivers and streams. Sometimes it looks like an easy wade and sometimes it is a bit worrisome. But we plod on just the same. Eventually we come to Barton Creek (of Barton Creek Cave fame!) This fording of the creek asked us to choose the rickety bridge over the Creek or a nice rocky, apparently even, path under a foot or so of the creek water itself. We chose the bridge. I'm not sure if it was the best choice.

A Bridge Too Far??

Barton Creek Cave is one of the big attractions in this part of Belize. It is an awesome site combining the beauty of the jungle the wonder of the mountains, the intrigue of Mayan artifacts and ruins and the excitement of canoeing into and under the limestone caverns that formed over millions of years ago as rainwater seeped into and started to dissolve some of the limestone matrix that makes up the hills and mountains of Belize. The results are magnificent--huge (dare I say 'cavernous,') beautifully adorned with stalactites, limestone columns, high ceilings and exquisite rock flows and cathedral chambers. The Maya call this the Xibalba (she-bal-ba), or 'the Underworld'. And so it is. An added attraction are the bats, both fruit bats and insectivorous types. We are told that even the famous Vampire Bats reside on the ceilings and walls of this underworld habitat.

Into the canoes and then we paddle through the narrow opening--is this our first test for the adventure that lies inside the mountain?

Judy Jones--Holder of the Light!

The quietness closes around you. I know that is a quaint saying found in cheap paperback novels, but it really does! The beauty of the cave erupts as you paddle into the dark. The 'Holder Of the Light', Judy Jones in my case, directs your attention. If you try to look on your own, you see almost nothing. The lights from the other canoes' 'light holders' helps, but it is the light from you own canoe that draws your attention. First we see the shiny stalactites and limestone drippings. Then Phillip pointed his light to the Mayan skull perched atop the shelf around the bend.

See the Skull in the Center

We paddle about 3/4 mile or so into the cave. Then we turned off all the lights. WOW! Dark really is dark! It is so funny when deprived of the input of light energy the eyes seem to rebel. They open wider, it almost hurts, well, feels uncomfortable. You strain, and search even though you know it is to no avail. I reconnected the light to the car battery that rode in the center position in the canoe. There, transported back to the Mayan Underworld again. The trip only takes about an hour, but it seems like 3. This trip to Belize has taken us to the tops of the pyramids and to the depths of the jungle. From the treetops on the walkway at Duplooys to the underground river system that flows beneath some Belize mountains. Kind of like the journey that the ancient Maya Shamen tell of the spiritual lives of the people of the jungle.

Out we paddle, into the sunlight and the birthday party of the son of one of the operators of this cave adventure. "Life renewed?" (In the picture of my high school biology teacher, Wally Hintz, swimming in Barton Creek look for the youngster in the left background. He was one year old that day. NO he is not really 'Walt the Water Lord' either.)

Walt the Water Lord ?

Around the entrance to the cave system is the jungle and the colors of Belize. As awe inspiring as the caves are, the wonders of the plant kingdom trump the exotic rock formations every time.

The road back brought us upon a few very interesting signs in San Ignacio. The top on our list was the "Rehab Bar and Grill". Rehabilitation the Belizean Way!!

The next sign should be familiar to anyone with a background in the history of evolution, or at least in the history of C. Darwin. As is popularly written, he had major health problems throughout much of his life after returning from this five year voyage on the Beagle. There is speculation that it might have been psychosomatic--resulting from the stress he felt while researching and writing 'On the Origin Of Species.' A second possibility is that he contracted an insect-bourne disease called Chagas Disease. The disease is real and this sign in San Ignacio shows that it is still present in the tropical parts of the world.

Back to headquarters--Duplooys Jungle Lodge. The jungle journey was almost over and the week was drawing to a close. We still had a few good observations and a few great meals left though. When we returned we had a greeter waiting for us near the deck. A male Basilisk Lizard--A Jesus Christ Lizard. We have been watching this guy all week. Of source I'm not sure if it was the same individual. To me all male Basilisk Lizards are similar in appearance if they are the same size, but it looked like the same one. He was in a short conifer, then on the side of a bigger tree next to the deck and finally he joined us on the deck at Dupooys tree-top walkway. We watched him while he was watching us. I wonder if he was as thrilled as we were? Probably not.

The deck is a wonderful observation tool. A treehouse as it were. A place to sit, to watch, to try to cool off and to be a part of the jungle that we have been walking through for the better part of a week. It is no wonder tree houses are so popular. Watching nature is fun, being up in it is a thrill. This is how we spent many of our late afternoons. In the trees, waiting for the 5:30 fly-by of the Mealy Parrots, having a Belikan and watching the Toucans and Lizards, Spiders, Bats and Snakes. That's a week in the Belizean Jungle for you!

But we still were not on Caye Caulker like the title of this blog entry promised. Stay tuned, that's the next stop and it is coming soon.

Caye Caulker--The Place to Run Away To

2011-08-13T12:46:00.000-04:00

A typical Belizian road!

Home again, but filled with the feelings of adventure still. The road from San Ignacio and the Macal River wove itself through Barton Creek Cave, an incredibly bad road (in the U.S. I'm not sure folks would call it a road actually,) past a settlement of Belizian Amish, through a few wonderful meals at Duplooys and into a great adventure on Caye (pronounced "Key",) Caulker. Eventually we traversed the most dangerous part of our journey--Bush International Airport in Houston!!!! (More about this latest 'Reality Show adventure later.)
San Ignacio and Santo Elena the twin cities is the second largest 'metropolitan' area in Belize. It is accurately described as an 'olde west' sort of town with paved streets and a casino. Some of the streets aren't paved, but the main roads are very passible. Drive a few hundred yards out of town though and the dirt/rock/mud roads appear again. In fact, going to the city's main attraction (other than the Royal Palms Casino,) Cahal Pech Mayan Ruins, is a journey only 4 wheel drive or a Belizian guide would attempt--and it is really in the town itself!!

We found the same little cafe that we had eaten in two years ago and tasted some local 'color'. A short visit after a beautiful canoe down a Central American river.

I think the highlight of the entire day was seeing a grey fox emerge from the jungle while we were visiting a local nature center. It was not part of the center, but certainly part of nature. The life cycle of the Blue Morpho Butterfly is a great example of evolution, natural selection and environmental adaptation. It gets it'd defense against predators of the bird variety by eating just the right type of leaf as a caterpillar.

Male and Female Morphos

' The Blue Morpho is a member of the Peleides family, with a wingspan of approximately 6 inches (15 cm). It is an iridescent blue butterfly that lives in the rainforests of South and Central America, including Brazil, Costa Rica, and Venezuela. The Blue Morpho Butterfly is a species of neotropical butterfly that has brilliant blue wings (the females are are not as brilliantly colored as the males and have a brown edge with white spots surrounding the iridescent blue area). The undersides are brown with bronze-colored eyespots. Adults drink the juices of rotting fruit using their straw-like proboscis. The caterpillar of the Blue Morpho is a redish-brown with bright patches of lime-green on the back.The larvae eat the plant Erythroxylum pilchrum nocturnally.' The leaves of the plant contain cyanide and give the caterpillar its protective toxic condition. Of course they don't eat the plant because it protects them, they eat the plant because it tastes good to them. They eat other plants as well, many from the pea family. The caterpillars are only toxic while they are eating the toxic plant. Of course they are concentrating the cyanide because they eat lots of plant material. The adults are not as toxic, but their lower wing coloration provides them camouflage protection from predators.

To Be Continued !!

Canoeing the Macal

2011-08-06T20:18:00.001-04:00

Yet another day in Belize. After traveling to another Mayan ruin on Friday, our third so far, we spent much of Saturday canoeing down the Macal River in Western Belize.

On the ferry to Xunantunich.
I have been to two of the three before, but it has been very interesting to see the different ages of the Maya and to hear stories about today's Mayan from our guide Phillip.

Today we canoed 12 miles from DuPlooys to the town of San Ignacio. The paddle was fairly easy with a few small riffles and a gentle rapid. Actually, it was much like paddling the Grand River back home. There were some differences, like palm trees, patches of bamboo, a Mayan ruin(still covered by jungle,) screeching Mealy Parrots, Neotropical Cormorants, and a few native children bathing in the river. But we also saw Great Blue Heron. A month ago I was kayaking the Grand and now canoeing the Macal in Belize. Different ecosystems with different niches, lots of similarities too. We lunched in town and went to a Blue Morpho Butterfly farm. The real highlight was seeing a Grey Fox come out of the jungle.

We are canoeing into an ancient Mayan cave tomorrow. A great adventure continues.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hammock Time

2011-08-04T18:15:00.001-04:00

What a great invention a hammock is! It is 2:30 Belize time and I am as relaxed as any man deserves to be. After a mid-morning trip through the Belize Botanical Garden learning more about their mission- "to help to educate the Belize people about the beauty of their native plants.". They have been working to collect and grow as many types of native orchids as possible. While creating a showplace for organic agricultural practices. One thing they pride themselves on is the use of all organic pesticides and fertilizers like NIM, citrus oils, animal manure(including bat guano,) natural detergents, and so on. They are trying to teach the people of Belize many of the things they have, as a people, forgotten. Many of the ways of the ancient Mayans. The Mayans were farmers in the jungle. That is just what the BBG is demonstrating. Our walk was aimed at showing us the plants and to discuss what the Mayans used them for. Many plants have multiple uses-- food, medicines, building materials, etc. We were told that there are two types of palm used for thatching. One lasts about 5 or 6 years and one lasts 10-20 years. Both are becoming very expensive for the native people because so many resorts are using the Palm fronds for thatching resort buildings the price has sky rocketed. So now the local people have turned to tin roofs because they are more affordable. That does not seem right. We hiked to the Maya House to learn how to make tamales and cook chaya. We also made brooms from palm fronds and other jungle materials. All natural, all sustainable, functional and even beautiful. By the time the broom was finished, lunch was ready. Again, local, natural, sustainable, and beautiful! Where have we gone wrong? Of course I'm sure the actual answer involves people and space, but the concept needs to be brought up to the surface every now and again.

So here I sit(or lay, ) in a hammock, on a porch along the Macal River, in the Cayo District of Western Belize. On a lazy afternoon in early August-- more relaxed than any man has a right to be.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Belize

Belize Day Three

2011-08-03T05:12:00.001-04:00

Day three in Belize. We toured the Belize Botanical Garden this morning. This is an incredible garden created in the middle of the Belize Jungle. The most interesting plants are the ones used by the Mayans. Also the famous Black Orchid. The national flower of Belize.

I am up to 36 bird species so far. That is pretty good for three days. Most I have seen on my previous trip, but still exciting for all of us. We are also learning about the Maya culture each and every day. On most trips you don't get to learn about the culture around you. That is a big bonus for us here. I will try to add more info each day. So, 36 and counting. Great fun!

- Posted wi BlogPress from my iPhone

Caracol - the snail site

2011-08-02T22:12:00.001-04:00

Our second day in Belize started out rainy. I mean it is mostly rainforest and this is the rainy season. Intact, it rained all night. We are in a "jungle bungalow" this year and it is really in the jungle. We saw 17 species of bird today while traveling to the largest Mayan site in Belize--Caracol. What a site! The main temple is over 150 feet tall. It is the tallest building in the country. The site itself is not all excavated. If it were, it would be bigger than Tikal. In fact, the Mayans at Caracol defeated the city state of Tikal. The critters are magnificent. Long day, long trip, more tomorrow.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Belize

Belize Is On My Mind

2011-07-31T19:25:00.002-04:00

All packed, zipped-up, and ready to travel. A group of twelve are gathering tomorrow (almost before the day begins,) to board a southbound plane and travel to Belize.

We are scheduled to take off at 6:00 am and fly first to Houston and then to Belize City. As we depart the plane we will feel the Belize heat and humidity for the first time. Of course, it has been tropically humid in NE Ohio this summer, but the house is air conditioned and I can come in to relief as needed. As my friend, Mike Kimmel used to tell his biology students while doing field work, " you can only get so wet. Eventually you start to dry." ( He also said " you can only get so dirty, eventually you start to get clean."). Anyway. Once you get soaking wet from perspiration you don't get any wetter. Last time I ventured to Belize during the rainy season I got that wet within the first few hours of arrival. Of course, I was at the Belize Zoo and photographing tapirs, jaguars, and toucans, so I didn't notice how sweaty I was.

So with a great deal of anticipation, I wait, try to sleep, and promise to continue the story of "The Belize Twelve--2011."

R.B.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Misty Ridge Dr,Concord, Ohio, United States

Off the Coast Continued

2011-07-15T14:21:00.001-04:00

The winds have picked up a bit so I'm off the rocks for a bit. Speaking of rocks, that's one of the highlights of our Maine Coast visit. The rocky coast of Maine is famous. The mountains rally do go down to the sea here. The geology is to dream about. Granite, schist, tilting, glaciers, extrusions, uplifting--you name it and you can find it here.

Most of the layered rock is metamorphic in nature. The layers show how the silts and sands were laid down and then heated and compressed into the layer schist rocks shown in the pictures. The seams of granite, an igneous rock flow through the layers of schist all along the coast. The colors and textures are incredible and make a day on the rocks always exciting, always beautiful and always induce thoughts of formation and changes to the Earth. It is hard not to wonder how the patterns were formed. I know the basic geology, but it is still fun to consider the order or chronology of the formations I am climbing upon.

The different colors come from the various minerals that were added to the melted raw materials of the granite. Granite with medium-sized white grains of the mineral feldspar as well as larger grained igneous rocks called pegmatite can be seen.

A very good description of these formations is on the following site: Maine Geologic Survey of Pemaquid Area

Metamorphic Rocks

Metamorphic rocks make up the bulk of the bedrock. The thin stripes or bands on the rock surface are actually the edges of layers. Layers of different color are made up of different combinations of minerals, although the individual mineral grains are quite small (about 1/32 inch), so they may be hard to pick out with the naked eye. The medium gray layers are composed of quartz, feldspar, and black mica (biotite) grains. Layers with a greater proportion of biotite are darker colored, even black. Still other layers have a greenish color because they contain the mineral diopside in addition to the pale gray or white quartz and feldspar. Taken as a whole, metamorphic rock with this sort of layered structure is called a gneiss (pronounced "nice"). The layers were originally deep sea sediments of muddy sand and silt (the gray and black layers) or limy sand and silt (the green layers). They have been changed by heat and pressure into the metamorphic rocks we now see. This process of change (called metamorphism) occurred in the Devonian Period of geologic time, between 360 and 415 million years ago. At that time these rocks were at depth in a geologically active mountain system. The deposition of the original sediments occurred before then (in the Silurian Period), about 430 to 440 million years ago.

The above specifics of the geology help to explain how our Earth changes. The wanderings on the rocky outcroppings help to inspire the wonder of change and the at the same time the constancy of how stable this formation seems to be. Every year when I return to this area of Maine I am mesmerized by the beauty of its geology. Every day I climb the rocks and ledges, and every day I find new formations, different grain patterns and a spectrum of colors. It is why I am a naturalist at heart.

Of course, I'm not the only wanderer here. the gulls come and sometimes even leave evidence of dinner.
I also love to find the colors of biology in and on the rocks. the lichen reminds me that even these substantial, seemingly permanent formations are temporary. The lichens will attach, grow, secrete and help to wear down the rocks. Of course, I won't see these big changes, but I know they are happening. See the world of the rocky coast of Maine is NOT static. It is dynamic just like I started with. The changes will come slowly, but I know they are happening. I'll just have to come back next year to see the differences (and the sameness too!)

Bio Wandering Off the Coast Of Maine

2011-07-15T10:55:00.000-04:00

Well here it is, mid-July, and finally I have the inclination to add to my story, to add to the bio-wanderings of an itinerant biology teacher. How can I keep secret all the biology going on around me? Well, it seems it is easier to go out to look at the world around me than to share it's beauty with everyone. But with that sort of apology said, here is what I've been seeing.

As you can see from the embedded 360 degree view above I am on the coast of Maine. Sometimes we see the world as a picture. Static, often beautiful, but still a snapshot of what is really happening. As I look out the windows of the the Artist's Cottage perched on the rugged rocky coast of Mid-coast Maine, the world is anything but static. If I were to sit here on the granite and schist outcroppings for a full 24 hours (I'm tempted, but rocks are hard and 24hours is a long time,) I would see the changing tides, the passing clouds, the constant but varied waves and swells of the water that seems to surround our small haven on the cliff. I can look out at the seal rocks that come and go twice a day. I watch the distant Eastern Egg Rock disappear as the fog moves shoreward and then mystically (or is that mistically?) reappear on the horizon. I continually look out at Eastern Egg Rock to catch site of the bird blinds that show against the distant horizon. I'm really desperately looking for the Puffin parents that are making their continual foraging flights to bring food back to this summer's nestlings. Of course, I don't see the Puffins from the shore, they are too small and the island is too far away, but I constantly try. I do see the Cormorants, Great Blackback Gulls, Black Guillemots, Eider Ducks, Ospreys, Laughing Gulls, Herring Gulls and Blue Herons, but to see the Puffins you have to take a ride out to the island aboard one of the Puffin cruise boats that operate from New Harbor and Port Clyde. I have done this in the past, but I want to have one land next to me on the rocks. It didn't happen yet. I watch the zones appear and disappear as the tides proceed and recede on their "published" schedules.

Sometimes at low tide I see the mussels and the long leafy brown algae and kelp. But I know in a few hours all of this will be submerged. Lost to sight. The critters depend on this. They can only take the dryness of low tide for a short period of time. They have evolved "strategies for survival" though. Actually this sounds like they changed in order to survive as if they knew something. We know that the changes came about and the changes allowed survival, but it is easy to fall into the understanding that things change so that they can then survive. Sometimes I think about this. This "evolutionary thinking." Sometimes I just look out hoping to see the stray whale or two. We have seen small whales from the cottage in the past, but this year I have only spotted a dolphin wandering across my windows on the coastal world. (Of course, dolphins ARE small whales, but I want the big ones to appear--you know, like the Puffin on the rocks.)

This year we have been treated to a magnificent "dynamic wonder of nature." The full moon of July has slowly grown for us. Each night we have hoped for clear skyes and low humidity so the moon could light up the night sky and glisten off the ocean for a few hours. So far we have been treated to a wonderful scene for two nights (one night it wasn't quite full, but still wonderful.)

Seeing the dynamic world is not the only way to sense that it is constantly changing. The beauty of being able to stay on the edge of the ocean on a cliff overlooking the tides and rocks of the coast is the sounds that come along for the ride. The rocks are washed with big waves, small waves, tumultuous waves and crashing waves all day and all night long. Each "style of wave" has its own sounds. Crashing and crushing, wafting and slapping. They constantly change and yet are constantly there. It is a sound I recorded, but will not be able to appreciate until I return to the rocky coast. Add to the constant waves, the occasional song of the Song Sparrow that visits throughout the day and the 'laughing' of the gulls as they light upon the rocks, and the dynamics are changed again. As I try to photograph the Song Sparrow I listen to his call. I stop noticing the crashing waves. We all have selective hearing. Today the waves are always there. Hard to notice. Tomorrow as we pack up and move west toward the mountains I will surely hear the waves and will certainly miss them next week. They are constant, but short lived in my changing world. Waves here, now, almost ignored. A great memory next week as my ears are filled with the sounds of my own woods, my own back yard. But now I'm still on the coast and have only a few hours to hear, and see and smell (did I mention the smells? WOW!) So off I go to take in the coastal world around me for a few hours more .

Springtime In Concord, Ohio

2011-05-01T15:34:00.000-04:00

Well there it is the whole world in a single picture. Of course it's not the whole world, but it is the whole world to a number of creatures that call this home. And it is the temporary home of those that pass through it sometime during the year. This picture has been placed here to show the renewed greens of a Spring that has been extremely wet. In fact, it is the wettest April on record here in Northern Ohio. Very close to the wettest month ever! The growth of Spring brings with it a renewed interest in all things alive for many of us. The smell of chlorophyll is again filling the air and the sounds of the birds has returned as well. I try to keep the feeders full, but the squirrels have been putting in overtime I think to get their fill. They tend to stop temporarily when the bigger birds alight. The crows chase them away as do the iridescent Grackles. I cannot walk by our back door or windows without straining to see what birds have visited this hour. Most are common visitors. Every now and again I am treated to a more unusual diner. Just last week I was getting ready to do some errands and glanced out the window to see an old friend. The Robin sized feeder was similar in color, but the placement of the rufous patch was all wrong and it was a darker black. I knew at once--the Rufous-Sided Towhee. Actually it is now called the Eastern Towhee. The "rufous" name was changed, but I still knew the bird. And that is what amazed me about this sighting. Though i did not keep records of bird sightings since my first course in ornithology at Kent State in 1971, I don't recall seeing a Towhee since then. Yet, when I spotted the Eastern/Rufous-sided Towhee this past week I knew at once what I was seeing. Somewhere in the maze of connections of neurons in my brain, the pathway that means Towhee was still active. Amazing!! Though my pathway said Rufous-sided Towhee and the guide books all say Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus ,)( http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/eastern_towhee/id) it was still connected, still active. I guess we do need to "Pay Ready Attention" as we wander through the woods and fields, streams and ponds. The connections are being made and archived for later use.

I recently bumped into a friend that has taken on the job of monitoring a rather large Eastern Bluebird nestbox trail in Geauga County. He is working hard at Paying Attention. He has noticed that the number of active nests and eggs laid are far the numbers he recorded last year. The prolonged cool, wet Spring temperatures have apparently impacted the birds as much as they have impacted the rest of us. Of course, as Jay said, the Bluebirds have been responding to weather changes for eons and they probably "know what to do" better than we know what they should be doing. So we watch, pay attention and interpret what we see. It makes wandering through Spring that much more fun.

New Worlds, New Wonders

2010-05-15T13:40:00.005-04:00

Last week I introduced a group of young people to a new world of wonder. It has been a short time since I noticed doing that, but in reality I have enjoyed a lifetime of "new world" introductions. You see, I spent the majority of my life (so far,) as a biology teacher. Though I retired from the high school classroom 4 years ago, I still teach. Sometimes I teach groups of students that visit the Lake Metroparks Environmental Learning Center (that is in Lake County in northern Ohio.) Sometimes I teach my granddaughter Maddie, and sometimes I simply teach people that happen to be standing next to me. But this week I was reminded of how exciting it can be to learn too. I work with a group of third through fifth grade honors or gifted students from a local school district. I guess they are "gifted" because they have been tested and identified as "cognitively gifted," but I think they are gifted because they show up every Tuesday afternoon, after a full day of school, with notebook in one hand, snack in one hand, camera in one hand, and usually some other artifact in one hand. They accomplish this because they are third through fifth graders, they have an almost unmeasureable amount of energy, they are gifted, AND they are curious!! This week I gave them access to the microscope. This week I gave them access to new worlds. Their energy, and their curiosity did not disappoint. I decided to start their adventure with some microscope basics. I wanted them to appreciate how special this exploration tool is. I wanted their journey to be less frustrating and more successful. I wanted them to be able to see and to measure with the microscope. They were ready, willing and very able to explore new worlds. The world I introduced them to was an import from my small, backyard pond. As I left for the Environmental Learning Center I stopped and collected a bagful of pond water and a few handfuls of hair-like

filamentous algae. The major genera in my pond is *Cladophora. (Sometimes called "pond scum," but I prefer Cladophora.) My favorite thing

to see in pond samples is, in fact the alga types. I love the green color and the ability to see into the cellular landscape. I love seeing the intercellular spaces and the the dots of color in the chloroplasts. I love trying to "notice" the nucleus in the cell. I say "notice" because that is what you do when you start a journey into the microscopic world. Often the new adventurer will fail to notice what is clearly there. "Can I get a new sample?" "There isn't anything in mine!". I go over to take a look at this "empty" field of view. "Wow!" I scream. "Look at this!". I tend to "notice" more stuff. Of course I see the algae. I describe the cellular boundaries, the cell walls, the membrane, the chloroplasts, the nucleus (if lucky and the lighting just right.) then I look beyond the strands of algae and "notice" the hundreds or thousands of euglena scooting around the filaments. They are small. We have the 10X objective employed, but visible if only you are willing to "notice." occasionally a much bigger paramecium swims by. I go crazy! By this time the young explorer wants her microscope back. They want to "notice" what's on the slide too. New worlds, new wonders! Then we load up the slide with some daphnia. Daphnia is what these scientists want. They are big enough to be easily observed.

They are complex enough to look like real pond monsters. Daphnia are small microscopic crustaceans. They have a heart, gills, a digestive system, an eye spot AND they are "see-through.". Perfect for a young scientist to get excited by this new world. They can see something happening. Thirty-four years teaching biology, four years of undergrad biology classes, two classes of biology in high school, and I still get goofy when I see a captured daphnia on it's side, heart pumping, gills waving, food moving through the intestines, living its little life on the microscope slide for all to see.

No wonder the mini-explorers get so excited! As a special treat , we gave each of the little scientists their very own "daphnia-in-a-tube" to wear on a string around their neck and to take home. Their own new world, their own new wonder!

*Recently a discovery of a new use for this pesky pond clogger has been made. This web site discusses a possible use of the cellulose abundance of Cladophora. They may be harvested for use in new, efficient , paper batteries. They can come to my pond and harvest all they want. Check out this site. http://ceramics.org/ceramictechtoday/materials-innovations/green-algae-harnessed-to-make-paper-based-batteries/

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Misty Ridge Dr,Painesville,United States

Wind In the Willows

2010-05-09T11:23:00.001-04:00

Wind in the Willows and Oaks and Maples and all around me. This is what has been getting my attention as of late. The recent winds that rolled through Northern Ohio brought a great deal of stress and some unexpected costs to lots of folks this past weekend. What good can come from such a natural phenomena as a 50 mph wind gust? Well, not a lot of good, but lots of natural impacts. That's what I was thinking about as the big Oaks and Maples and other giants were being whipped first one way and then another Friday night and all day Saturday.

My first thought in a wind storm is "will one of the tall trees be visiting my family room before the weather front passes?". But then as I watch the trees bending back and forth, I am amazed at their strength. I know the basic biology of trees, the structure of wood, the chemistry of cellulose, but still, it is truly amazing to watch how strong these tall trees really are. As the leaves come sailing down I enjoy thinking about the ones that stay attached. The preening of the dead branches in my back woods during a wind storm will help clear out the upper reaches of the trees helping to prevent these branches from becoming "deadfalls" when I go exploring in better, calmer weather this summer.

Now that the canopy of leaves is a bit less dense more sun seems to leak through the trees. Does the extra light that streams down to the floor of my forest promote more wildflower growth? Or allow some of the treelets (or should that be treeettes?) to take hold more successfully? It is hard to say. But these are the things I think about during and after a wind storm. (Except a few years ago when a black locust fell across my deck and into the side of my house. Then I was thinking of insurance and repairs and contractors and bills. But let's get back to biology.)

As we drove past a large grassy field I saw one of my favorite natural pictures. Sheets of wind were causing the field to flow. Waves of amber grass would work as a description. The field of weeds was being turned into a pasture of soft, tumbling waves of grass. The rhythms of nature were all around me. It is often difficult to see waves. But not in a wind storm. I guess I am discussing the physics of wind and grass, not the biology, but science is science. One great big way of thinking. We are the ones that separate it into biology and earth science, and chemistry, and physics. But that is another discussion for another time.

I'm going out to pick up some of those branches that escaped the confines of my woods and settled onto the small patch of mowed grass I call my back lawn. I'll probably watch the plethora of birds that successfully "battened down the hatches" during the storm and are now attacking my feeders. I wonder how they maintained their stations in the 50 mph gusts. Were some relocated? Will I see some unusual visitors that rode the arms of the storm from up north? I guess I'll have to go outside and watch some science to find out.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Misty Ridge Dr,Painesville,United States

The Biggest Playground On Earth

2010-04-24T09:41:00.013-04:00

Lately I have been playing around with people that think kids should go outside and play!! Well, actually I have been listening to speakers that have been promoting this idea, and meeting with lots of folks that agree with this. A week or so ago, April 13th to be exact, I attended a lecture sponsored by The Holden Arboretum (see-- http://www.holdenarb.org/natureplaymatters.asp,) "Nature Play Matters." the speaker--Dr. Elizabeth Goodenough, Harvard University, was "speaking to the choir" as it were. From what I could see the audience was comprised of outdoor educators, outdoor education activity coordinators, outdoor program organization representatives and just plain outdoor types. (I didn't actually look, but I bet most of the footwear consisted of some form of hiking boot! But I digress!) But the message about natural play was important for all to hear none-the-less. It is not a new idea, In fact there has been legislation in Washington since early in 2009.

According to Open Congress, the bill is sponsored by Congressman John Sarbanes (D-MD). Officially called H.R.2054 – No Child Left Inside Act of 2009,

This bill seeks to enhance the environmental literacy of American students, from kindergarten to 12th grade, to foster understanding, analysis, and solutions to the major environmental challenges facing the student’s state and the Nation as a whole. Appropriations would be provided to train teachers for such instruction, provide innovative technology, and to develop studies assessing the worth of these programs in elementary and secondary school curriculums.

This legislation, known as "No Child Left Inside Act of 2009," is currently in committee. Basically it amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. This movement is a response to the popular book "Last Child In the Woods," by Richard Louv, and has a companion movement throughout the country in the Children and Nature Network and in Ohio in the statewide movement "Leave No Child Inside" collaborative. http://lnciohio.blogspot.com/2010/04/children-and-nature-awareness-month.html

This brings me to the meeting I attended yesterday--The Northeast Region of the statewide Leave No Child Inside. The organizing meeting was attended by representatives of most of the noted Northeast Ohio Outdoor organizations--Of course, Lake Metroparks and The Holden Arboretum, but also included were professors from Hiram College, and Mount Union University (new name as of August.) Also, the YMCA Outdoor education facility was represented as were the Stark County Metro parks, and a few others. Imagine that, all these folks and all this energy to get us to take our kids outside! Is this all necessary?

YOU BET IT IS!

Our kids are turning into an "inside species." They even sit inside and watch programs about the outside. The programs aren't bad. In fact I love them. But now that we are all amazed by the "Life" that is a part of our world, lets get out and enjoy it. Get out to the Parks. Get out to the backyards. Go for a walk. Watch a pond. Plant a tree. Observe a bug. (Remember

watching a group of ants marching on the sidewalk? Well, they still march!) Feed a bird. In fact, just go outside and play. We have the biggest playground in the world just waiting for you and your kids. What do you think?

Earth Day --40 years and counting

2010-04-22T20:47:00.005-04:00

So here it is, Earth Day 2010. 40 years and counting. A lifetime for many and yet it seems like a blink of an eye. Forty years ago, Kent State University (12 days before it became "famous" worldwide,) a freshman bio major and ready to let my voice be heard. The first Earth Day was a big event on campus, at least in the biology building, Cunningham Hall. Senator Gaylord Nelson had proclaimed the first Earth Day and we were ready. Ready to march, ready to learn, ready to teach and ready to change this ailing planet. That really was a lifetime ago. Well, a career's lifetime ago. Thirty-four years in the biology classroom. Thirty-four years with approximately 100 students a year (some years less, some more.) 3400 youngsters that learned about their world, our world, THE WORLD. 3400 young folks learning about where in the world they are and how they need to understand it and take care of it. Some years we all forgot about the health of our planet. Some years it was fashionable to care. So how are we doing now? Well, the planet is still ailing. We can make a list of the wounds, but suffice it to say that an extended
stay in the critical care ward is called for. But at least it is again fashionable to care about the health of the planet. The "Green" word is good right now. Actually it is profitable for businesses to be "Green." Maybe that is the direction we needed to go. Not "It isn't easy being green!" as my friend Kermit always said. Now we can say "It is easier being Green than it was before" and that is a good thing.

Today I worked with a group of excited students from Perry Middle School. We were learning about how to use a compass, and how to navigate through the wilderness using a hand-held GPS. The take-home lesson was supposed to be about how scientists use GPS technology to help their research. But since it WAS Earth Day, I was happy that we were able to help them understand just where in the world they were. If we all just knew where we stood in the world, the health of the planet just might start to improve. Certainly before the next 40 years go by and these students reflect on their experiences at the 40th Earth Day celebration. Let's hope. Well, let's do more than just hope, let's act.

My House Hawk

2010-04-05T17:22:00.002-04:00

This is interesting. We ID birds 200 feet in the air, with backlight conditions, moving in circles and we are incredibly confident in our calls. Here is a bird, sitting in a small leafless tree in my front yard, “captured”, enlarged and cropped, and we have three or for pretty good birders not quite sure of it’s kind. Of course John Audubon would know what it “was”. I say was because he would have shot it, stuffed it and mounted it before he painted it and named it. Chucky D would probably not know this bird since its range does not include any areas visited by him, but he would be the first to bring up VARIATIONS. I recently enjoyed reading the new Dawkins book–The Greatest Show On Earth, and he talks of rabbitness.That is, we all try to explain what the ideal rabbit looks like, but we know deep in our biological souls that there is no perfect rabbit! There is a spectrum of rabbitness. Of course we can look at a hawk and suggest that it is a Coopers Hawk or a Red Shouldered Hawk or a Sharpy, or …….. We know there is no perfect Cooper or Sharpy that portrays all the characteristics of the Coopers Hawk species. There is Coopers Hawkness or Sharpyness that lies somewhere on a spectrum of characteristics and we deem the bird a Coopers ( or Red Shouldered, or what have you!) So how do the great birders always “get it right?” First, they don’t always get it right, and second, they use more than just field marks and colors. They combine marks and colors and patterns and maybe most importantly–behaviors. That is what my picture is missing–behaviors. The success of good bird identification is not simply knowing what a bird looks like, it is also knowing what it is doing, how it is behaving. Maybe the pinnacle of bird spotting is on the top of Hawk Mountain in East Central Pennsylvania. During the Fall migration hundreds of hawks of various species can be seen. Think about Darwin’s variations with this scene– 50 or 60 Cooper’s Hawks or over 1600 Broad-winged Hawks that were spotted last September 17th. Which one was the perfect Broadwing? How did the spotters know all 1600 were really Broadwinged Hawks? It is what Barbara McClintock called ”a feeling for the organism.” On this same day a total of 1646 hawks of various species passed by Hawk Mountain. A total of 8 different species of raptors were recorded. The total for the whole 2009 migration season was 15,592 birds, 21 identified species and 1 in the category “other”. (I wonder what “other” was. Is this the only bird they could not identify???) As I looked over this data I thought about Dawkin’s species problem, the perfect Red Tail, or Cooper, or Bald Eagle. I also pictured the bell-shaped curves that Darwin’s variation concept predicted. In fact, I even pictured bell-shaped curves soaring past the North Lookout of Hawk Mountain. Well, not really, but now that I wrote about it I cannot get the image out of my mind!! So there it is. One hawk, one picture, a waterfall of thoughts.

The young Red-Shouldered returned a few months later and brought along a partner

. Now I watch them both as they pick off a series of moles and chipmunks that wander along the forest edge in my backyard.

What a lesson in evolution I have unleashed because a young hawk decided to take a rest at 10437 Misty Ridge Drive!!

Springtime Trouting

2010-04-04T20:41:00.007-04:00

So there I was -- standing in the middle of a small riffle just upstream of the confluence of Big Creek and the Grand River in Eastern Lake County, Ohio. I was in the Grand, but I could see the waters of Big Creek joining the Grand river watershed just over my right shoulder. The water was clear enough to see the river bottom AND the Steelhead Trout that were just starting their downstream run back to Lake Erie after spending the Fall and Winter upstream. Northern Ohio was having a very unusual March heatwave. A week after a quick snowfall, the temperatures were pushing almost 85 degrees (F). The last days of March in Northern Ohio are often mild (the proverbial lamb,) but mild around here in March is

usually in the 60’s, not the 80’s. El Nino weather patterns make strange shifts in lots of measurements. Some places get extreme rain, some higher temperatures and data shows a change in the patterns of tornados and hurricanes too. Here we were rewarded with a short lived summer. The rivers that flow into Lake Erie alternated between too low to be fished and too high and muddy to be fished this past year. Of course, the dedicated, dyed-in-the-wool, fishermen’s fly casters go out no matter what the river looks like. I am as much an observer of fish as I am a catcher of fish. I do enjoy the activity of fly fishing. Casting to a particular pool. Avoiding this log or that shrub. It may be as much about my fishing skills, but fish watching is pretty entertaining too. That is what I was doing while standing in the middle of the Grand River last week—fish watching. I was trying to catch a steelhead or two, but studying them was pretty good too.

I found a nice deep part of the river just beside the shallow riffle where I was standing. The shale that makes up most of the river bottom in the Grand creates shelves and ledges in the river’s structure. Some of the shelves or ledges create waterfalls, some create deep pools. The pools provide sanctuary for the big fish as they make their way up or down stream. Often, a large three or four-year old trout will be resting or logging in these pools. Sometime more than one can be seen. That is what I was watching (and casting to,) on this wonderfully warm weekday afternoon. There were a few other fisherfolk around, but not many. Most seemed to be fish-watching too. Steelhead trout on their spawning run (both up stream and down,) are not really interested in eating. Eating is what they have been doing all summer in the lake. Occasionally they will attack a floating bug or nymph (as much from habit as from hunger,) and that is what a Steelhead trout catcher is hoping for. The particular large fish I was watching did not seem to want to attack anything other that other trout that happened by. I nymphed, I egged, I streamered, but mostly I watched. But that was ok. What a scene I

was watching. The fish I was “playing” with was probably a 3 year old (maybe 2 years since the size of a fish under water is a bit difficult to accurately estimate due to the tendency of water to magnify,) 24 inches or so and wonderful to observe. As smaller fish entered the pool the “resident” cleared them out. A short rest seemed to be fine, but only a short one. If a smaller trout stayed too long, it was scooted away. If too many smaller fish entered the pool, even a short stay was not allowed. I was casting to the rest stop, but mostly I was watching the residents. Occasionally I would hear a noisy splash behind me. Not a big splash, but kind of a splatter. In fact, a series of splatters. As I turned to see the cause of the noise I saw a younger fish making its way down the riffle. Sometimes they start down a shallow section of the river instead of staying in the deeper runs. When this happens they need to “skitter” along the gravel and rocky riffle areas. This creates a splashing noise and is great to watch. Of course, if I was really just trying to get fish I could simply net the skittering fish, but I was here to watch and appreciate as much as I was to catch fish. And appreciate I did! I have been watching the tremendous new television series on the discovery Channel. This series called LIFE, is wonderful. But I was IN this “Life” episode, so I just watched. When I view the Discovery version of “LIFE” I am amazed. The photography is remarkable even if the narrator’s explanations leave a little to be desired (in the US version, Opera Winfrey is the narrator.) I have found a few too many explanations of wonderful design as the reason for a particular animal’s shape, color, structure or success to be comfortable. I’m not sure how Sir David Attenborough narrates, but I’m sure the BBC version discusses the evolutionary processes a bit more accurately. But here I stand in the middle of a river, watching my own episode of LIFE. That’s what this essay is all about. We all need to watch the episodes of LIFE all around us. Whether the tapping of a pileated woodpecker, or the hunting of a red shouldered hawk, the hunting practice of Fitzroy (my cat,) or fledging of a house wren, LIFE is all around us. Paying attention to the world around us is actually the theme of my Australian friend’s entire blog. It is called “Paying Ready Attention” and can be found at http://payingreadyattention.blogspot.com. This blog is deserving of a good long look, or rather many looks since Stewart adds to this site quite frequently and every entry is worth reading.

That is what I was doing last Thursday. I was standing in the middle of a riffle, up-stream of the confluence of Big Creek and the Grand River “paying ready attention.” I’ll be back. I will search out this pool. I may ‘tease’ the resident for a short while. I may try a nymph, or a streamer, maybe an egg pattern. He (or she) many not even be there, but I will certainly be paying ready attention to the LIFE around me.

Of Blogs and Birds and Bugs and Belize

2010-02-28T11:41:00.006-05:00

Blogs seem to be a real part of our lives now. Of course, you know that–you are reading this. But look around you. Blogs from all the national television networks…blogs from all the major newspapers…blogs about your favorite programs…blogs about your favorite politicians and even those you would rather not hear from anymore. But blogs from the jungle? Yes, absolutely ! But how is this possible? Read-on MacDuff.

I have not added much to this blog this summer. As a teacher for over 35 years, I always seem to get out of rhythm in the summer. It is not that I slow down, I seem to go just as fast, but in different directions. This summer I was “out of town” and living out of my suitcase for about 43 days. That’s pretty busy. One hunk of this time was spent in the jungles of Belize. I know—summer is not the absolute best time to visit Belize, but there were extenuating circumstances. You see, I was invited to accompany my high school biology teacher on what may be his last trip to the jungle.
Wally Hintz turns 80 this year. Our travels together started around 1962. We didn’t actually travel together back then, but that is when I first met Walt. I was in fourth grade, he was the biology teacher at our local high school. I dissected my first frog that year and needed some help. The preserved frog had a mass of blackish “stuff” in the thorax area. Naturally I went to the town’s expert–Walter Hintz–high school biology teacher. (How many of us have occupied this position through our careers as biology teachers?) The black stuff was only a mass of frog eggs. Not a big find, but it did make a connection that has lasted for 47 years and counting!!!! Over the years this connection got stronger. Of course, I had him as a teacher (not my intro biology teacher, but my mentor in a course called Science Seminar.) But we connected in many other ways too. I did an observation of his teaching techniques while in my undergraduate education program. When I graduated from Kent State University in 1973 (yes, the May 4th KSU shootings happened durring my Freshman year,) I applied for a job that opened up when Walter left Wickliffe High to become a vocational nursing program supervisor. I got the job. We told everyone that I was there to continue the legacy of Walter Hintz (some of the administrators were not so happy about this, but it turned out to be true.) Over the years that I taught biology in his old classroom, Walt came to visit. He usually carried a tarantula or snake to share with my students. In the years that I conducted a 24 hour field study with my own Science Seminar class I invited Wally to come and lead a night hike. I knew I needed to expose as many generations of excited students the best field biologist I had ever met. After I married, Wally even brought his spider to my wife’s first grade class for show-and-tell (my wife Betsy was the last one to hold the tarantula, but she did hold it.) We hooked up as a teaching team when I worked with him on a wonderful project that took a group of Ohio middle level teachers on a one week schooner adventure in Maine. We were the instructors.

Rachael Carson Salt Pond

We taught everything from navigation, to whale ecology, to island ecology to how to use The Voyage Of the Mimi in the classroom. What a gig. We got to go sailing, we got to go island exploring, we got to eat lobster, we got to teach together AND we got paid for it. (Isn’t teaching wonderful?) We did this two times in the late ’80’s. After I traveled to the Galapagos for the first time I knew I had to have Wally go with me the next time I visited the islands. In 1997 Wally and I lead a group of teachers on a 14 day exploration of the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador.

Wally at Post Office Barrel, Floreana Island

We returned with another group 2 years later. On these trips I get to be the teacher AND the student. When I got an email from Wally in March that he was going back to Belize (”…possibly for the last time,”) with his community college class and he needed another biologist to go with him, I knew I had to go. Belize in the summer is hot, humid, rainy, buggy, but relatively inexpensive to travel to. The trip was on.

I wanted to share my experiences in the jungle with others if possible. Over the years I embraced technology. Wally was still the consummate field biologist. I enjoyed the challenge of integrating technology with the excitement of field biology discoveries. Was this possible? Sure if you have a pretty healthy budget, but what about “on the cheap?” I explored the possibilities. I knew that our accommodations, Duplooy’s Jungle Lodge, advertised WiFi connections (at least at the main building.) I was sure that if I brought my laptop with me I could have connected to my own Benz’s Biology Blog and added my observations and reflections. (This was totally dependent upon the thickness of the cloud cover, the height of the trees and the absence of rain storms I later found out….) But I did not really want to subject the laptop to the humidity, bugs, rain storms or customs (it is a Mac, so it is not really used to bugs ; ) ) I wondered if there was another, easier way to stay in touch. That was the answer—- I figured I could bring my trusty iPod Touch.

The iPod Touch

It was small, it was light, it had music, and it had a great application “iBird Explorer Pro” for bird id reference. I knew that if I did get a WiFi connection I could send e-mails. I could not load my own photos, but I could capture pictures from the web and save these for later download or I could email the pictures to anyone I wanted. I knew that my blogging application could be set to have e-mails from me added as blog entries (most blog applications have this capability.) I gave it a try. First, I sent a plain e-mail from my home to my blog site..Success! Next I thought about the capability of sending a captured picture to the blog as an e-mail. Success !! Now, how about if I sent a captured picture and added a comment or title to the picture!! It worked. Well, what if I sent a picture with a caption that was a paragraph long? What if the caption was actually my blog entry. Bingo!!! So I traveled to Belize. I sweated, I put on insect-proof clothes, I explored new environments, I enjoyed Wally’s stories (most of which I have heard many times, but they are always great,) I took pictures (lots of pictures,) I learned about Mayan customs and shaman customs,

I watched leaf-cutter ants travel an unending path into the jungle, I paddled through caverns with Mayan artifacts, I helped university students start a new archaeological dig of a Mayan ruin in the middle of the Belize jungle, I dove the Belize Reef, AND I shared all of this with my family and friends back home via my Touch, a WiFi connection and my Benz’s Biology Blog. (http://benzbiologyblog.blogspot.com/)

Technology and tradition traveling together –exploring, learning and sharing.

Get a Touch and stay in touch. Everyone needs to share a treasure like Wally Hintz!!!

Of Butterflies and Bats

2009-08-06T23:27:00.005-04:00

Of Butterflies and Bats

Belize is a very diverse place to visit. The ecology is incredible (of course to a dedicated ecologist all ecosystems are incredible.) The cultural history is fascinating because of the "exotic" Mayan peoples and the mix of others that make up the Belizian people.

Over the past two days I have had the opportunity to experience both.

Cahal Pech is another Mayan ruin. It is a smaller site, but much more ancient than most of them. The first habitation was from about 1200 BCE. The temples and ruins of the ball fields and royal houses date from around 250 AD. This is fascinating stuff. Not only was this wonderful, not only could we climb on and explore all the buildings, but we hit this exhibit while there was an indepth excavation/ exploration with THE Belizian authority on Mayan antiquities. We heard wonderful stories from him and from our guide who had been a student of his. We ended our day in San Ignatio the local town.

Today we traveled over the terrible roads to Barton Creek Cave. This is a Mayan underworld ruin. It is a magnificent limestone cave system. We canoed in past a rock boulder that protects the entrance. As we paddled along we saw thousands of bats, beautiful formations AND Mayan pieces and skulls. Almost like a Disney ride, but this was the real thing. As if this was not enough, we then bounced past the Belizian Amish communities. Acres of corn mixed with papaya and palm trees. Farming all year, no snow, and a government that welcomes their
farming skills. No wonder they came here in the late 50's. We ended up at Green Hills Butterfly Ranch. The round-ups are easier here. They raise over20 different butterfly species. Their butterfly house is magical. Lots of pictures were taken.

So far I have spotted 46 species of birds- about 40 new sightings. One more day in the jungle, then the reef and the beaches.

The Shaman's Grandson

2009-08-04T23:48:00.004-04:00

The Shaman's Tale

The day starts with coffee on the canopy deck with the toucans and tanagers and the Shaman's grandson.

Our theme for today was Mayan culture, but the most amazing part was the morning spent listening to Phillip. Phillip has been our guide since we arrived. Today was a relaxing day. I was down on the deck early to sit and watch the jungle, have a good cup of coffee and spot the birds. A few new bird finds and a second cup of coffee made for agreat morning. This is when Phillip joined us. He is not a Shaman , but his grandfather was-- for 75 years and his great great grandfather too. For almost 200 years his family was in jungle medicines. We were treated with story after story of his grandfather's life and his work with natural medicines. Then we went on the medicine trail here. I have a new vision for life. I am moving to Belize and becimg a modern day Shaman. Phillip said that you cannot charge for your healing- you must give your knowledge from your heart. Good will come from this and you will be taken care of. So there it is! Another good day.

Laguna Aquacate- Day Three

2009-08-03T20:05:00.005-04:00

Laguna Aquacate-- Day Three

After an all night rain-- we are in a rainforest afterall, we broke our fast and got ready for the day trip to Laguna Aquacate. As if the road wasn't already terrible with rocks and ruts and ravines, the rain also made it slippery too. But our guide Phillip drove the van as if
were his everyday drive to and from work. Of course, it is. We drove east of San Ignacio to another man powered ferry crossing. This time we crossed tha Belize River. As soon as we crossed the river we were in Mennonite country. This group of Menonites came to Belize in 1958. It was like going from a third world country with any poor people living in small houses and surviving by living off of small plots of land to driving through Burton or Middlefield, Ohio. The roads were paved, well maintained, and even had lines marked on them. The farms were big and they had huge farm equipment stores. Quite an amazing contrast. The destination for today was a lake maintained as a wildlife preserve by the Mennonite communities. The main attraction included birding spots, a sighting or two of crocs, the possibility of seeing howler monkeys in the wild. The birding was good, we saw the croc pool but no crocs and we heard lots of Howlers, but could not see them. The best part of the day was our hike through the rainforest to see unexcavated Mayan ruins. But it was even better than we had been told. We did see some buried sites. We saw where a stone was started for an altar, but left unfinished. Then as we continued down the trail. (of course hot--about 87 or 90 degrees with 90% humidity and lots and lots of mosquitos-- that L.L. Bean insect proof clothing worked like a champ.). We came to an active archeology site. A group from UCLA was just starting a dig thatight last many years into the future. It was great. They told us all about each dig site and even let us help sift and sort. This is not a tourist site-- they were ad surprised to see us as we were to see them. There were over 25 arheologists from all over the country. Most were graduate students getting some field experience. What a way to put the excavated ruins we saw yesterday into perspective.

We had lunch by the lake, stopped for Mennonite ice cream and headed home to shower, relax, and watch the green tree iguana from the deck of duPlooy's bar.

Tomorrow we visit a medicine trail and try some Mayan cooking.

The adventure continues.

After Lunch Day 2 The Maya

2009-08-02T22:06:00.005-04:00

After Lunch Day 2 --The Maya

Even the trip to Xunantunich was a hoot! The road into and out of duPlooys is as rough as you can have and still drive on it, so every trip is an adventure. When we finally got out it was a short drive to the Hand Crank Car Ferry. One car or van at a time. Every one gets out of the van, the driver drives it onto the ferry, you stand beside it, and the ferry guy ( technical term) turns a crank that pulls the ferry, the van, and all of us across the Mopan River. Very 19th century, very cool! I asked our guide why they have not tried to mechanize the

process and he said if they did , the ferry guy would be out of a job. He is right. This is what we do in the US. In Central America, they keep the man working .

Then about a mile drive to the parking lit and a short mile hike up to the ruins. Unbelievable! I will have to add detail later, (iPod typing is hard,) but this is a sight that has to be seen . I will add Picts later, but the climb to the top of the biggest pyramid was worth
it. You can see for miles and miles.

More later.

Birding At duPlooys

2009-08-02T14:54:00.002-04:00

The day started early with rumbles of thunder and hard rain. Well, it
is a rainforest afterall. The two hour difference made getting up forthe 6:30 birding much easier than I thought. The deck overlooking the
forest and the river put us at canopy level. The clouds and early
rain slowed down tha bird activity. We still spotted over 20 newspecies. Well, not new species, but new to my list. We heard many of
them through the night too. We cut the bird hike a bit short when we
got a bit more rain. Breakfast came next and the we had a great walk/
talk through Ken duPlooy's Belize Botonic Garden-- and that was just
the morning!

Next we go to Xunantunich the Myan ruins and archeological site. WOW!

First day

2009-08-02T11:26:00.002-04:00

Early departures are a two edged sword--first you have the added
stress of trying to figure out just what time you are going to have to
get up to pull your stuff together get it into your car and get to the
airport --is it an international flight?? Well you need a bit more
time. Yikes that means you have to set the alarm to 3am-- 3am I
awfully early. The other side of the sword is that you might have a
shot at arriving at you destination with some of your travel day left
to actually start exploring. With the 2 hour time difference we were
scheduled to get to Belize at about 10:30 or so.

Everyone arrived at the airport within minutes if each other--good
start. They even checked us all in at the same time. Good deal. The
flight was full, but it was a good flight to Houston. We were even
checked through to Belize City.

Well, we made it. Easy flights. We got here at 10:30, passed customs
and were on the road to the Belizian jungle by 11:30. The first stop
was the Belize Zoo. Wow. Animals right up close. Jags and tapirs and
pumas. I have lots of Picts, but have not down loaded any yet. The
zoo started after a film crew did a nature film and then left the
animals in the care of an American that was handling the animals. She
started the zoo so the animals would not die. Any way, it was
incredible to see them so close.

The jungle is hot, humid AND beautiful. Dinner in the canopy with a
choir of birds. More to come.
Sent from my iPod

First Day In Belize

2009-08-01T19:52:00.001-04:00

First Belize Blog

2009-07-29T11:27:00.002-04:00

Well, we are just about ready to fly south and west. The trip
involves a very early flight from Cleveland to Houston----6 am. But
we do get to Belize pretty early--10:36 their time. This should allow
for a stop at the Belize Zoo before getting to duPlooys. I have read
that the Macal River is flooded. I hope this does not ruin any of the
planed trips. Anyway, the birds will still be there and the plants
should be even more lush. Time will tell. That is all for now--More
to come soon. RBenz (still in Ohio.)

A Few Words Of Wisdom

2008-01-12T09:09:00.002-05:00

A Few Words Of “Wisdom” from Robert Fulghum—

the Author Of "All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten,"

For Young Students Headed

To a Teaching Career.

Fulghum’s Recommendation’s: (somewhere between Murphy’s Law and The Ten Commandments)

1) Buy lemonade from any kid who is selling.

2) Anytime you can vote on anything—vote!

3) Attend the 25th reunion of your high school class.

4) Choose having time over having money.

5) Always take the scenic route.

6) Give at least something to any beggar who asks.

7) Give money to all street musicians.

8) Always be someone’s Valentine.

9) When the circus comes to town, be there.

I do not want to talk about what you understand about this world.

I want to know what you will do about it.

I don’t want to know what you hope.

I want to know what you will work for.

I don’t want your sympathy for the needs of humanity.

I want your muscle.

As the wagon driver said when they came to a long, hard hill,

“Them that’s going on with us, get out and push. Them that ain’t, get out of the way!”

I give you this Swiss Army Knife as a symbol of Fulghum’s

wisdom. He too gave a Swiss Army Knife to his own son at his college graduation. It was a part of a “Kit Bag.” What’s a “Kit Bag”? It is a small bag that the American Indians carried. The early explorers of this country learned from the native Americans to carry a small bag containing all the essential tools needed for survival. They carried a flint and steel, a piece of leather “string”, a cutting edge. These are the things they needed to survive in their world. I give to you, upon your Graduation, the beginning of your own “Kit Bag.” I give to you your own Swiss Army Knife. Use it as needed to help you survive. Of course, it is only a part of your “Kit Bag.” You will have to supply the other items. Go off now and get the other things you need to survive in your own world. Good luck and remember, “When the circus comes to town, be there!”

R. Benz, June 2004

By my own Mentor

Random Thoughts On a Drive To School

2005-09-26T19:34:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I wish I lived a bit closer to school. As it is, I have a 25 minute drive to school and a 30 minute drive home. Why the difference? Well, going to school I take a pretty direct route via Interstate and main roads (except the day it was really snowing hard and I didn't make one of the turns because it was difficult to see the road and realized I was lost about ten minutes into the trip. This is a very strange feeling and might be the subject of a later wandering blog.) On my way home I take the back roads. You might think I would be in a hurry to get home, but actually this is a nice time of the day. I drive on a variety of backcountry roads that remind me of my travels through the countryside of rural Vermont. (Those of you that live in rural Vermont might not think that this is so special, but believe me, it is.) The extra 5 minute drive is a small price to pay for a daily Vermont vacation. I also get to “hunt” for biology as I make my way through the country. It is not unusual to see small groupings of whitetail deer, along with any number of soaring and perched red-tail hawks. I also have to watch out for the occasional wild turkey or two. One day two years ago I turned a corner near the Holden Arboretum (one of the largest arboretums in the world,) and saw a field filled with over 50 wild turkeys. Certainly worth 5 minutes out of my day!!

Actually, I think the 25 minute drive is a good thing. On the way to school, it provides me with the time to switch gears, to remember what happened the day before, and to create. We are teachers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but sometimes our thoughts are focused on other things. The drive to school allows me to refocus. Most importantly, is the time I take to create new stories. I am sure that the reason I have been able to stay in this profession for 32 years is that it has provided me the opportunity to be creative.

On Friday (1/28/05) it was -3 degrees F. on the outside thermometer when I got up and got ready for work. I looked out into my woods and wondered about the wildlife. How did the birds do? How about the rabbits and deer? Just a passing thought. I went out to get my paper and felt the cold. Now I really wondered how the animals were fairing. But the hour was getting late and I needed to get on the road.

The creative part of my drive was about to begin. How could I use the cold temperature in my classes? I have been thinking a lot about evolution over the past few weeks. It HAS been in the news quite a bit (the Dover, PA. schools decided that the students in their biology classes needed to have the district administrators read a short non-science statement regarding evolution at the start of their unit on evolution and natural selection.) But also, I have been putting together some thoughts about how I teach about evolution since Darwin Day is coming and I am speaking at our local natural history museum's Darwin Day celebration. So naturally, I thought about the effects of our current weather on the survival of the wildlife. Well, what I really thought about on my cold drive in was Darwin's thoughts after a similar icy blast in Downe. It is told that Darwin saw dozens of dead birds on his own property at Down House (note the town is Downe and the house is Down.) In Chapter Three of The Origin Of Species, Darwin writes that nearly 4/5's of the birds on his property failed to survive the winter of 1854-1855. Now how can I slip that bit into the students' inevitable complaints about having school when the temperature was so low????? Simple, I start my class talking about how I decided if it were two degrees colder I was rolling over and pulling up the blanket. (This way I can say it was actually a bit too warm for me this morning.) So that’s what I did, I taught a little about natural selection to a group of sleepy, crabby, cold 9th graders. I got in a little history of science and even a bit of how birds actually do stay warm on such cold nights. As part of the story (see Judy, I’m just a storyteller too,) I threw in the expression that it was a “three dog night.” Of course I thought they would instantly recognize the expression because of the music group by the same name. You guessed it–I’m showing my age. No one knew either the expression or the band !!! I had to add to the story a bit, but I threw in some biology about body temperature and animal size. I even ventured into thermoregulation and body covering. I finally got around to a dog’s body temperature and the insulating qualities of fur verses feathers verses skin. I could have gone on and on, but the point was made. Animals have evolved strategies to survive the extremes in their environments. Also, if it is -5 degrees I’m rolling over and pulling up the blanket.

See what can come from a 25-minute drive to work!!

Finding Delight At the Old Dead Tree

2005-09-25T15:35:00.000-04:00

What good is an old dead tree? As a biology teacher of 33 years I know the answer to this question, but none the less I need to be reminded from time to time. I spent a wonderful September Saturday afternoon at home recently. I'm afraid most people would think that a day at home, Saturday or otherwise is a wasted day. But when you have an opportunity to experience the wonders of nature and the beauty of life all at the same time you consider it a treasure, not a waste of time. Sometimes I think that a day that begins with no meetings, no appointments and no place you have to be is a day that needs to be treasured, even if nothing happens. But something did happen.

A leisurely cup of blueberry coffee, time to read the newspaper and no place to go is how I started the day. Then I heard it. There he was again. The screech of pileated filled the September chilled air. Throughout the late summer I have been hearing both the tapping of the bill and the screeching call of a pair of nesting Pileated Woodpeckers. A year and half ago I had the opportunity to watch the pair of beautiful birds for an hour or so in my backyard. I shot a number of pictures and was amazed that one of the world's largest woodpecker species was making my backyard their territory. I had seen the characteristic rectangular hole in a Cherry tree near the back of my property a few months before, but had only heard the loud tapping in the distance until I looked out my back window that February morning. I saw the pair other times since that day, but not recently. Then in August I started to hear their characteristic screeching calls again. Each time I scooted out to the back deck, field glasses in hand and searched the trees. I saw them on the wing a few times, but couldn't find them in the trees. Saturday I heard the screech again. No answer, but the definite screech of a Pileated Woodpecker. Coffee in one hand and binocs in the other I quickly and quietly went outside. It was a bit chilly. One of the first cool mornings of the new fall season. It felt good, clean, natural. And I looked through the trees again. First without the binoculars the then with the glasses up to my face. Nothing. As I lowered the field glasses I saw movement in my neighbor's old dead Oak. Of course, why didn't I look there first? This is a woodpecker. Their favorite place to be is an old dead tree. That's where breakfast is. The bugs, the grubs, the ants......that's a mighty good feast for a hungry woodpecker. Being the largest woodpecker in the world means they need lots of bugs and grubs and ants each day. (The Pileated is considered to be the largest of the North American woodpeckers with the exception of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was considered extinct until a recent sighting in a remote swamp in Arkansas this past year. There is still a bit of controversy about the sightings, but it looks like the Pileated has been shifted to second place once again. But it is still a pretty big woodpecker to see in your backyard.) There he was (it was the male of the pair, so "he" is the right description here.) As I raised my glasses to my eyes I saw him. Red cheek patch, a long stiff tail and the telltale topnotch of a Pileated. He was busy. I watched him shred the bark of the tree. Piece by piece the long branch was being cleaned of its outer covering. He turned his head to get an angle on the bark. The long beak was more of a stripping tool than a digging tool this morning. It was incredible to watch how much bark was lifted every time he angled his head and drove it under the loosened the bark. What a beautiful bird!! His sharp claws dug in, his long stiff tail feathers pressed firmly against the branch, he was well positioned to do his work. Then he hopped up the branch a few inches and started to shred another section. I gazed up the branch and was amazed. The big branch was being transformed into a Shagbark Hickory (in looks anyway.) This tree is enormous. In fact, it towers above most of the other trees in our back woods. It has been losing its battle to survive over the past few years and my neighbor has been talking about taking it down for over a year. Now as I looked at it it was being transformed into a totally different kind of tree. If not a Shagbark, then a old southern Oak with long strands of Spanish moss hanging from it. At least that's what it looked like at first glance. Through my binoculars I saw different. The work of a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers over the past few months was incredible. They have been literally "hunting and pecking" the tree bare of its bark. Branch after branch, up and down the tree, the bark was hanging in tattered shreds. What a job they have done. Almost before my eyes I was seeing a three story tree stripped of its outer covering. It is quite a thing to see such small creatures (they are big woodpeckers maybe 14 inches , but small compared to us and tiny compared to the tree,) making such a big change in this towering tree. Certainly other woodpeckers have been helping. I have seen Redheaded, Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers in the branches of this tree and at my suet feeders through the summer. Watching the bark being lifted and tossed to the ground by this bird convinced me that he and his mate were the primary excavators here.

Great viewing indeed, but I soon went back to my newspapers. Fifteen minutes was enough for me to learn about the work of the Pileated Woodpeckers and to appreciate how much work these small birds can accomplish.

About a half hour later I was finishing up and I heard the cries once again. What's going on out there? This time I took my spotting scope out. I can focus at 15 x and then zoom into 60 x to see much more detail. I set it up, raised the tripod and angled it to the same branch on the big dead Oak. He was still there, a little higher, but still angling his head, wedging the beak under the bark and lifting. Piece after piece was being lifted and thrown down again. I zoomed into his head. I was looking into his eyes this time. Black, glossy beads. He turned his head each time there was a noise. I saw a Fox Squirrel running away from the Oak. It was on the upper branches of a tree that was a bit further in the woods. I wondered if the screeching from the woodpecker was because the squirrel had gotten too close? At any rate it was making a fast retreat. What a picture. Here I was, standing on my deck watching the eye movements a truly magnificent bird. Then I focused on his bark activities. What was he actually getting? What bugs was he finding under the bark of this old tree? Then I saw it--a small white grub was visible. Then wham, it was gone! I watched for a while more. Another grub. And then I saw his beak open slightly and a long black tongue flicked out and got the grub. Wow! I wasn't watching Nova or reading Audubon Magazine. I was watching a bird in my back yard, in an old dead Oak, on a Saturday morning that most people would consider wasted.

My friend Stewart from Melbourne doesn't have woodpeckers in his back yard. He lives in Australia and there aren't any woodpeckers in Australia (they have parrots and Kookaburras , but no woodpeckers. ) To show his son a woodpecker he has to look in a book, go to a zoo, or travel in an airplane for 20 hours. Here I was standing on my deck, coffee in hand, scope angled up and watching one of our largest native woodpeckers flick his tongue and suck in breakfast. Not a waste in any possible definition of the word.

You never know what delight you can find in an old dead tree.

Father's Day Observation

2005-09-15T20:09:00.000-04:00

Just a little observation I made last June---

What a day I had last Sunday. It was Father’s Day and the weather in Northeast Ohio was magnificent. I took the opportunity of a lazy afternoon to sit on my back porch and while listening to the music of WKSU (my local Public Radio station,) to read a new history of evolutionary thought that I had recently purchased. Evolution, the Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory by Edward Larson, it is called. Reading about the powerful arguments and discussions that resulted from Darwin’s 1859 publication of The Origin Of Species is always a pleasure for me. But especially when sitting in my back yard on a lazy afternoon. It is a wooded lot and I have had the pleasure of watching a nesting pair of house wrens all spring. Sunday was a special day for the House Wrens, and for my wife and I as well. It was a day that reminded me about being a teacher and also about being a parent. Sunday was the day that the young wrens first left the nesting bottle that had been their home for the past 15 days or so. Betsy first noticed them early in the morning. (I was out playing golf too early to even want to remember.) She told me that she saw four small wrens, First two then the next two. They were flitting around the garden. They would fly from the hanging nest bottle to the garden fence. Then to the branches just above the bottle, then back to the bottle. First two, then the other two. Then she said she saw the bigger “parent” birds leave the bottle for a while. By the time I got home the routine was being repeated over and over again, but by noon they were adventuring out much farther a field--to the split rail fence we have maybe 50 yards away--to the branches of more distant trees--then finally back to the nest. But as the afternoon wore on and I kept glancing up from my reading I noticed that there was a ruckus at the nest. The parent birds were not to be seen, but the young were still flying about. When they landed you could see them flutter their wings. Possibly getting feathers into place? Maybe getting used to the new skill of flight? Who knows? But I kind of thought that they were pretty amazed at this flying thing. Of course I was reading a book on the history of evolution, so I was really trying to be more scientific, more objective in my interpretations. Then I noticed what the commotion was at the nesting site. When the young landed and tried to get in there was a loud distress sound coming from the opening and the young bird would fly away. The noise was the same one I had been hearing for three weeks whenever I walked near the bottle, when I mowed the lawn or checked the holes in my garden fence that the local rabbits created when they breached the security of what I thought was an impenetrable barrier around my 5 tomato, four cucumber and 3 zucchini plants. But that’s another story for another time. This distress call was pretty effective. It got my attention and I tended to move away from the nest. Pretty much what was supposed to happen. But now it was being used for another reason. I was nowhere near the nest, only the returning young. I started to wonder about the sequence of steps in the raising of a young house wren, and since it was Father’s Day, in the raising of a young daughter or son (I’m a step-dad to two daughters, but I have an imagination.) Then I thought about being a teacher. It’s pretty much the same, and I have been doing that for 31 years now. I imagined the house wren parents’ thoughts.

“We have worked for almost a month to get to this day. We flew in to the yard, we scoped out the best nest site. We checked the big wooden apple that hangs in the Maple tree near the wooden fence. We looked at a nest we built two years ago in a bottle that is mounted on the shed and even looked at the new bottle on the other side of the shed. We found the hanging bottle that we used last year and started to “fix-it-up.” I added more twigs and some soft grass. Then I lined it with feathers from my own chest. That’s when I started to mark the territory. I marked it with sound. Calling out my bubbling, chatter song at each of the corners of the yard. I did this to attract the mate too of course. Since I had the best nest sites I guess the selection was rather easy. Nonetheless, we got down to the business of creating the new lives. We had four new eggs to care for and we did care for them. Every minute of every hour, one of us was there. Sitting-on or turning. Watching and protecting. Calling out when danger came near them trying to distract any intruders. We took turns getting food for one another and watching and turning and just waiting. The eggs hatched and that’s when the work started. Food, food, food. Both of us getting food for the chicks—four of them!!! Bringing it in and stuffing it into the biggest open mouths in the nest. Get food, fly in, stuff it in and then go get more food. For twelve to fifteen days. Soon we were also cleaning up. Fly in get the white fecal sack and take it out. We did not just drop it. That would make finding the chicks too easy. We flew it away and then dropped it. Fifteen days and then the day of flight came. We taught you to fly. We taught you to catch the winds and to land. We taught you how to look for insects, to feed yourself. Later in the day we started to repeat the song, the song for territory marking and for courting. We repeated it at the four corners of the yard. We sang it by the garden and by the big maple. But we also let you hear another sound. The distress sound. You heard it when you tried to return to the nest. You were tired from your lessons and wanted to come back to the nest. But we have given you gifts. We have taught you how to fly, how to hunt and how to sing. We have given you all the tools you will need to succeed, to survive. You can’t come back home now. That is what the distress sounds mean. Now you need to go out, to go out to find a new yard with your own wooden fence, your own maple tree, your own nest bottles and ultimately your own lives. This is the gift we gave you. We gave you knowledge, skills, tools. We were your parents and we were your teachers. Now you hear the distress sound when you return because you are ready to go off and be house wrens yourselves. Fly now, sing your songs.”

Of course I didn’t hear any of this conversation, but I’m sure it what was being said Sunday afternoon. It made me think about being a teacher (and a parent.) We work hard to get the site ready—the classroom, the unit, the lesson, the special project. We study, we prepare, we devise and we plan. Then we work to give the students the skills they will need to succeed and to survive. That’s what we do; we get them ready to survive. Sometimes they don’t want to leave, but they are ready. They can succeed and they move on to fly, to sing their songs, and we start all over again with a new brood the next season.

So I sit here and listen to the song lessons and to the distress sounds when the young birds try to get back in and I think about doing that for 31 years and then I smile.